“Just my opinion as a voice actor, but you might think of the (Sardaukar) throat singing sounds in Dune 2021 not as "language" but as an encoded military battle chant; a specific series of syllables with the consonants purposefully removed to render the remaining vowel sounds discernible only to the Sardaukar. The result of millennia of phonemic abbreviations meant to obfuscate a hidden message. Other examples of this might be huddle or line audibles from a football quarterback or a drill sergeant counting out a marching cadence. It sounds incomprehensible because it's meant to.”
Michael Geiger is in constant demand as a musician and particularly as a studio session singer. He has been a concert and recording artist, producer and arranger in the Los Angeles area over the past four decades, performing regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Paul Salamunovich and Grant Gershon (10 seasons) and the Los Angeles Opera Chorus (24 seasons) with Placido Domingo. He has also appeared with numerous chamber music ensembles such as the Millennium Consort Singers with Martin Neary, the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, I Cantori de Los Angeles, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble of Orange County, The Voices of Liberty at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and as a guitarist with The Orange County Guitar Orchestra. Michael has most recently toured with Hans Zimmer on the American West Coast leg of his 2017 world tour. Michael is a featured vocalist on Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel DUNE. He is the voice of the Sardaukar chanter and shares writing credit with Hans Zimmer on that work.
Michael is a long-time member of recording industry organizations, Page LA Studio Voices, and The Hollywood Film Chorale. He has appeared on and off-camera as a vocalist on the soundtracks of over 200 feature films, television commercials and episodes, radio spots and video games. His appearances include ER, The Tonight Show, Days Of Our Lives, The Gilmore Girls, J.A.G., Malcolm in the Middle (Emmy nominated), Dancing With The Stars, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, DirecTV; feature-film soundtracks such as Dune (2021), Mulan (2020), Call of the Wild (2020), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2020), The Lion King (2019), Us, Men In Black, The Nun, The Sixth Sense, Jurassic Park, Polar Express, Spiderman, The Matrix, Frozen, Rogue One, Happy Feet, Ice Age, Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Skyrim, God of War and Assassin’s Creed. Michael's sound recording credits include work as a singer and arranger with Celine Dion, Linda Ronstadt, Barbra Streisand, Leanne Rimes, Paige O’Hara, The Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra, the art-rock ensemble DREDG, Busta Rhymes, Red-Hot Chili Peppers and most recently with the British band MUSE on their recording of SURVIVOR for the Olympic Games. He appears on the GRAMMY Award winning DVD recordings of the Los Angeles Opera productions of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill, La Traviata - featuring Rolando Villazon and Renee Fleming, Giuseppe Verdi’s MacBeth – Featuring Placido Domingo, and on the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s GRAMMY nominated recording, Lux Aeterna, featuring the music of Morten Lauridsen. He appears on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th installments of the Grammy nominated children’s music project, Beethoven’s Wig as singer, arranger, and co-producer with Richard Perlmutter. Michael is an author/arranger with Alfred Music Publishing which features several of his works associated with Beethoven’s Wig Sing-along Song Book.
Michael received his early musical training at the Interlochen Center for The Arts in Interlochen, Michigan as a classical guitarist. Michael studied choral arts under the tutelage of Mel Ivey and applied vocal arts with Marcella Faustman at Western Michigan University; Howard Swan and Nina Hinson at the University of California, Irvine in choral conducting and vocal performance; art-song and aria coaching and master-classes with Martin Katz, Graham Johnson and Valerie Rifkin at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, California, and stage craft with the great Metropolitan Opera Basso, Giorgio Tozzi.
As a teacher, Michael is currently an adjunct professor of applied voice and vocal pedagogy at Azusa Pacific University. Michael is professionally represented by the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA) and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). He and his wife, Gayle are parents of four adult children and reside in Fountain Valley, California.