The Rootworks project is a collaboration between John Ellis and American musician/composer Michael Ward-Bergeman.

Taking the Blues as a musical starting point, Rootworks journeys across borders to an unknown destination.

Michael Ward-Bergeman is an artist exploring sound and music by researching the world’s richest musical traditions and synthesizing them with his creative use of music technology.

Trained on violin and piano as a child, he only discovered the accordion in his early 20’s when he needed a portable instrument to teach circus arts to children. It was an obvious choice to choose the accordion: his grandfather played it and the instrument had always intrigued him.

Michael found an old second-hand accordion at a yard sale, and the minute he played it he knew he had found a musical companion.  When he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music to study piano and music synthesis, he naturally took his accordion with him.  It was there that the many international students and lecturers introduced him to the diverse folk music traditions of the world and the important role the accordion plays in many of them.

While at Berklee, Michael also began to use his knowledge of acoustics to develop certain processes and techniques that would expand the expressive capabilities of the accordion, which he dubbed the hyper-accordion.

His sensitive and creative approach to his instrument has led to performances and collaborations with world-class musicians and composers of all genres. He has performed at many venues, from the local pub to Carnegie Hall, on television, and on motion picture soundtracks.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Michael currently resides in London, England, with his wife Louise.

Click here for Michael Ward-Bergeman's website.