Michael R. Bernstein — Musician and Installation Artist

Bio: Michael R. Bernstein lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he is developing a band of robot musicians to alleviate humans from the burdensome task of creating music for themselves. In former lives he ran the Heavy Tapes cassette label, performed over 100 live shows with improvised quartet Double Leopards, and started a rock band called Religious Knives with his best friend and wife, Maya E. Miller.

Recent installation: 97 BPM Dream Chord Prime Number Search for Four Organs by the Blue Tape Human Liberation Orchestra — at the 10th International Conference on Music and Minimalism, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, May 7–10, 2026.

Next live performance: May 26, 2026 w/ Sarah Hughes and Gerswyn Foster at Rhizome

Recent press: “Michael R. Bernstein doesn’t need everyone to love his ‘weird music’” by Lydia Sidhom in the Washington Post

Releases on Bandcamp:

• 97 BPM Dream Chord Prime Number Search
• Solo Electric Guitar Volume 1
• Sensing/Sending Live at Rhizome
• The Perfect Radio Station of the Mind
• …is listening to The Movement
• Covers & Cantillations
• Suite for Arnold
• Rain Vibration (with Maya Miller)
• Legibility
• Sadder Birds
• Same Birds
• Blind In Sight
• Biblical Times
• Slower Learn
• Do The Impossible
• A Digital Exchange

Previous live performances:

• August 10, 2025 — Bassett & Bettis Duo / Matchstick Percussion / Michael R. Bernstein at Rhizome
• April 17, 2025 — Laurent Estoppey & Daniel Levin / Weathering / Michael R. Bernstein at Rhizome
• February 14, 2025 — “About Time” — Three Hours of Light and Sound, presented by Michael R. Bernstein at Rhizome
• December 6, 2019 — Hairy Sands / Michael R. Bernstein / Trevor Keen at Rhizome
• August 22, 2019 — Isasa / Magic Tuber String Band / Michael R. Bernstein at Rhizome