Mikey Zahorak is a Toronto-based music director, multi-instrumentalist, and composer currently serving as the Director of Music for the historic Bloor Street United Church as choral conductor, pianist, and organist.  A staple of the local performance scene, Mikey is the keyboardist for David Backshell, the band leader & pianist of the “Sacred Jazz” performance series, and occasionally performs with the Blackboard Blues Band.

Before returning to Canada in 2014, Mikey spent three years as a ghostwriter for Universal Music Group: Nashville, followed by a period in film composition at Remote Control Productions under the direction of Hans Zimmer.  His compositional credits includes title tracks for Apple and Calvin Klein to award-nominated shorts in “The Germericans” and “Come Back To Us” to original musical theatre scores featured at the Edinburgh, New York, and Toronto International Fringe Festivals. Musical collaborations include Grammy-winning pianist Angelin Chang, and orchestrator Glenn Caldwell.

Mikey’s musical education stems from songwriting and jazz piano from Berklee College of Music, piano performance B.M. and M.M respectively from Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, piano pedagogy M.M from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and piano performance diploma from the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien in Vienna.

A specialist in the Taubman Approach, Mikey’s work in piano pedagogy is deeply informed with his own chronic tendonitis providing musicians with the ergonomic, anatomy-based tools necessary to play any instrument with power and without pain making him a vital resource for students navigating their own technical recoveries and with many of his students continuing their musical journeys at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, and Oberlin Conservatory.