Mikey Zahorak holds the position as Director of Music for the historic Bloor Street United Church in Toronto, Canada. Prior church positions as pianist, organist, and conductor include Hope United Church (Toronto), Grace Lutheran Church (Illinois) and, in Ohio, Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church and Little Church in the Vale.
A multi-instrumentalist in piano, bass guitar, and saxophone, Mikey’s short list of notable performances include the Borealis Big Band, Lynn Moffatt (singer\songwriter), Greg Germann (drummer), Kevin Turcotte (trumpet), and worked alongside Angelin Chang (Grammy-Award winning pianist) and Glenn Caldwell (orchestrator).
Before returning home to Canada in 2014, Mikey spent three years as a ghostwriter for Universal Music Group (Nashville) followed by a time within the Los Angeles film scene beginning with Remote Control Productions, under the direction of Hans Zimmer. Accolades within film composition include “Come Back To Us” (short film) — the 'Official Selection' at the 2016 Ozark Shorts Film Festival and “The Germericans” (web-series) — nominated ‘2014 Best Sketch Comedy’. His first original soundtrack “The Call” is now playing on Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify.
Mikey has also written title tracks for Apple and Calvin Klein, as well as original music scores for musical theatre productions at Toronto, Edinburgh, and New York International Fringe Festivals. Notable works include “Kill Sister, Kill: The Musical” and “Silence, S’il Vous Plait”.
Born in Manila, Philippines, Mikey’s musical studies includes Berklee College of Music in songwriting, Cleveland Institute of Music in piano performance and literature, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in piano performance and piano pedagogy, and extensive studies in piano performance at both Herberger College of Fine Arts and Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien in Vienna. An injured pianist himself, Mikey was forced to relearn how to play through the Taubman Approach where he has become a sought after teacher in Canada for students having incurred injuries over time at their instrument.
The 2024 Silvester Kirby Organ Scholar for Bloor Street United, and keyboardist for David Backshell and the Nighttime Gals, Mikey can be found directing & performing in musical theatre side projects within the community. Zahorak is also an adjudicator for Arcadia Academy of Music examinations, and occasionally performs with artists around Toronto, including the Blackboard Blues Band.
