Michael Reed studied at RCM, where he was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. He studied piano with Angus Morrison, and conducting with Harvey Phillips, Vernon Handley and Sir Adrian Boult. Reed was the first conductor for Raymond Gubbay's CLASSICAL SPECTACULAR with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society, and conducted the original live recordings. Reed has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra, and has worked with most of the leading British symphony orchestras including the LSO, Royal Liverpool, and Birmingham. He has conducted over twenty West End shows including THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (world premiere), BARNUM, ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, ASPECTS OF LOVE, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, MR. CINDERS, and SINGIN‘ IN THE RAIN.

His own compositions include THE VISIT (with Moritz Schneider), GARBO (with Warner Brown and Jim Steinman), WAR IN HEAVEN (with Fay Weldon), ROCK IN A HARD PLACE (with John Theakston), and CHARLEY'S AUNT (with Jon van Eerd). He has composed and orchestrated the scores for four Holiday on Ice productions and "The Beauty of Magic" (Las Vegas). His film, television and radio work includes five Royal Variety shows; the Eurovision Song Contest; three Royal Galas (Prince's Trust); recordings of GUYS AND DOLLS, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, BITTER SWEET and THE DANCING YEARS for BBC Radio 2. Reed was orchestrated the dance music for the Blake Edwards film "Victor Victoria" (with Julie Andrews), and was Musical Director for the film version of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (DVD); he also conducted and orchestrated the music for "Furia" (music by Brian May).

Recordings: Cast albums, including Noel Coward's "Bitter Sweet," "Ziegfeld" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; "Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber"; Sarah Brightman's album "Surrender"; José Carreras' album "Passion" and the single "Time to Say Goodbye" (Brightman and Andrea Bocelli). During a Covid lockdowns, he recorded the cast album of "Rock in a Hard Place."

Most recently, he has been Musical Supervisor and Arranger for Jim Steinman's DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES and BAT OUT OF HELL (worldwide). He also arranged and orchestrated ICH WAR NOCH NIEMALS IN NEW YORK. He directed SUNSET BOULEVARD for the ENO at the London Coliseum with Glenn Close. He orchestrated DER MEDICUS (Fulda festival), for which he jointly won the German Musical Theater prize for Best Orchestration with Roy Moore. He also arranged and orchestrated I AM FROM AUSTRIA (Wien). Michael is currently working on the English version of CHARLEY'S AUNT, a new musical farce based on the play "Charley's Aunt", which he has co-written with Jon van Eerd (with an English translation by Kit Hesketh-Harvey). He also composed the score for BLACK VENUS, a play by James MacManus.