Michael Straugh is a composer, recording artist, pianist and guitarist. His first album of contemporary piano solos, True North, was released in December of 2004. His piano solos have been embraced as meditative, romantic, and healing. True North is a telling of life, as all true art is. Pieces such as Wedding Dance, written during a very rainy honeymoon cruise, or First Breath, written to be played during the birth of his first daughter, capture the emotion life’s turns imbue us with. True North is in fact a song cycle spanning the brashness of youth, the finding of true love, the circling of life, thru a lonely journey at its conclusion. Features "Scheherazade" & "Linus and Sally in Love" (both charting Top 20 on American Idol Underground). “Music to chase away the grayest of winter days… Michael Straugh truly enthralls listeners with the passion in his playing… A collection of beautiful instrumental songs which are truly the music of life. Complex piano melodies played with grace and passion to delight the senses.” (reviewed by Nancy at www.Streams-of-Time.net) “Blends Contemporary and more Classical compositional idioms into works that are at once captivating upon first listening, yet contain layers of complexity where one may hear something a little bit different each time.” (reviewed by Frank at www.Streams-of-Time.net)