Michael League

Michael League is a 5-time Grammy® Award-winning, 5-time nominated producer and musician based out of Catalonia, Spain. He is the creator and bandleader of instrumental music ensemble Snarky Puppy and world music group Bokanté, founder of the record label and music curation source GroundUP Music, and artistic director of the GroundUP Music Festival. 

As an instrumentalist and producer, he has worked with a diverse range of artists in pop (Laura Mvula, Lalah Hathaway, Joe Walsh, Michael McDonald, Rufus Wainwright), folk (David Crosby, Chris Thile), gospel (Kirk Franklin, Walter Hawkins, Marvin Sapp, Israel Houghton, Myron Butler), jazz (Terence Blanchard, Esperanza Spalding, Joshua Redman, Wayne Krantz, Chris Potter), electronic (Squarepusher, Daedelus, Tokimonsta), and world music (Salif Keïta, Eliades Ochoa of the Buena Vista Social Club, Fatoumata Diawara, Bassekou Kouyate, Susana Baca, Kardeş Türküler, Väsen). GroundUP Music, formed in 2011, has expanded from independent record label (home to albums from David Crosby, Charlie Hunter, Becca Stevens, Cory Henry, Banda Magda, and many more) to live event curation, launching the annual GroundUP Music Festival in 2017 in Miami Beach, Florida. It has played host to artists like Béla Fleck, Esperanza Spalding, Andrew Bird, The Wood Brothers, Robert Glasper, Concha Buika, Terence Blanchard, Joshua Redman, Jacob Collier, Tank and the Bangas, Chris Thile, Knower, and Pedrito Martinez, among many others. Michael is passionately committed to music education and outreach, having given clinics and masterclasses at over 200 schools around the world. 

In 2020, alongside GroundUP Music Festival Director Paul Lehr, Michael formed the GroundUP Music Foundation, which seeks to advance music education incentives throughout the world. He is active as a guest speaker in international music business panels and works regularly with non-profit organisations in an effort to better serve the community at large through the arts.