Michael Zapruder (born 1969 in Washington, D.C.) is an American musician and songwriter. He is a recording artist, and a co-founder of San Francisco's Howells Transmitter arts collective and record label.

Michael Zapruder was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is an alumnus of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and Hamilton College, where he studied religion and music. He spent his junior year of college living in Nepal, studying Tibetan language and religion. Upon graduating, Zapruder moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he now lives. His siblings are both writers, Matthew Zapruder and Alexandra Zapruder.

Zapruder holds a Master of Arts in music composition from California State University, East Bay (2014) and a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Texas at Austin (2019).^[1]

In 1999, Zapruder wrote and recorded one song per week for a year in a project titled 52 Songs. During the project he released a five-song EP, Lomograph, and later assembled a compilation titled Bye Bye Beauty, which was not commercially released. Limited CD copies of the full project were produced and are now out of print.

Following 52 Songs, Zapruder recorded the piano-based album This Is a Beautiful Town. The piano parts were recorded on Neil Young's piano at Broken Arrow Ranch. After the album's release, Zapruder toured the United States in support of the recording.

In the mid-2000s, Zapruder and some close allies created the Howells Transmitter collective and record label, through which Zapruder released New Ways of Letting Go, an orchestral folk album with a large ensemble called Rain of Frogs. The album was recorded partly by Zapruder and his studio partner Jon Bernson, and finished in collaboration with Scott Solter. Zapruder toured widely for this release, including appearances at South by Southwest and Pop Montreal. ^[2][3]

In 2009, Zapruder again teamed up with Scott Solter for a two-week session at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studios, during which the album, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope was recorded and mixed in its entirety. Released by SideCho Records, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope won the 2009 Independent Music Award for Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album. For the release, Zapruder teamed up with video director Jesse Ewles to produce a video for "Ads for Feelings".^[4][5][6]

In 2010, Zapruder completed work on the Pink Thunder project. Pink Thunder is a collection of free verse pop art-songs made from the poems of more than twenty contemporary American poets. Contributors include Noelle Kocot, James Tate, Bob Hicok, David Berman, D. A. Powell, and Valzhyna Mort. Zapruder composed, produced and sang on the recordings, which feature instrumental contributions from more than forty other musicians, including Nate Brenner from Tune-Yards, Ava Mendoza, Marc Capelle, and Tom Griesser.

Pink Thunder is available in multiple formats. Black Ocean Books published a hand-lettered hardcover book with enclosed CD. The Kora Records released a vinyl 12" version of the record containing eighteen of the pieces. Howells Transmitter and Black Ocean Books jointly released a pink vinyl 7" containing four of the pieces. Twenty-two Pink Thunder portmanteaus were available for listening, viewing and for sale at San Francisco's Curiosity Shoppe^[7] from October 18, 2012 to November 18, 2012. Consequence called Pink Thunder "a mixed bag of free verse poems backed with eccentric instrumentation."^[8][9][10]

At the 2011 AWP conference in Washington DC, Zapruder debuted his portmanteaus, a multimedia release format for some of the Pink Thunder recordings. In collaboration with electronic designer Mark Allen-Piccolo, Zapruder embedded single tracks from the Pink Thunder project into ten identical pink plinth bases, on top of which rest found objects representing some aspect from the poems to which they correspond. These objects were hosted by ten participating publishers at the conference.

Since 2004, Zapruder has shared a small recording studio with songwriter Jon Bernson called 1924 Franklin is a Car. This space has been the main location for many recording projects and the site of many impromptu sessions. Other recording credits for the studio include work with Scott Pinkmountain, Black Fiction, The Lovely Public, Gene V. Baker, Anamude, P.A.F and Raised By Spacemen.

Zapruder is a founding member of the Howells Transmitter arts collaborative and record label. Other principal members include Jennifer Welch, John Bernson and Colin Held. Howells Transmitter is home to a stylistically diverse group of artists: Charles Atlas, The Fresh and Onlys, Michael Zapruder's Rain of Frogs, Black Fiction, Scott Pinkmountain, Window Twins, Ray's Vast Basement, Modular Set and contributors to the Wiretap Music Compilation. Howells Transmitter has produced numerous plays and poetry readings, in addition to its musical endeavors.

Michael Zapruder was Pandora's head music curator from 2003-2011. In 2012, he left Pandora to focus on music full-time.

• This Is a Beautiful Town (2002, Explorable Oriole Records)
• New Ways of Letting Go (2006, Howells Transmitter)^[11]
• Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope (2009, SideCho Records)^[12]
• Pink Thunder (2012, Black Ocean Books / Kora Records)^[13]
• Latecomers (2020, Howells Transmitter)^[14]

• Serious Light (2022, Howells Transmitter)

• Both Side Convenience (2025, Howells Transmitter)^[15]

• rrunnerrss (2026, Howells Transmitter)^[16]

• Michael Zapruder
• Pink Thunder portmanteaus at AWP 2011
• AllMusic