Michael Vecchio is a New York-based filmmaker, photographer, graphic designer and recording engineer. After leaving a career in Finance, Michael Vecchio first gained artistic notoriety in New York City as a composer and sound designer for celebrated Deitch Projects artist, Haluk Akakçe.
After several successful collaborations with Akakçe – with shows at such spaces as The Whitney Museum, PS1, Tate Britain, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Lightbox London, Kunstwerke Berlin, Kunsthalle Basel and Istanbul Modern – Vecchio took a position as a house recording engineer at the world-renowned Clinton Recording Studios in New York City. There, he cut his audio engineering teeth working with clients like Phil Ramone, Brendan O’Brian, Mike Elizondo, Sting, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Regina Spektor, as well as countless Broadway cast recordings and major movie soundtracks.
Simultaneously, Vecchio began collecting cameras and lenses to shoot product reviews and recording technique demonstrations for The Deli, an NYC music and culture magazine. Soon, Vecchio was combining interests by producing music videos, including the single, “Back in the Dark,” written by long-time John Legend collaborator, Dave Tozer, for singer McGowan.
In February 2014, Vecchio was hired to shoot the cover of Mix Magazine, featuring John Legend. Vecchio went on to shoot ads and video pieces for music industry clients such as Warner Music, Universal Audio, Arturia, Focusrite and Germano Studios/The Hit Factory (including a Mix Magazine feature on the studio).
In 2015, E! News Australia hired Vecchio to shoot a NY Fashion Week special episode of “The Hype,” featuring Ksenija Lukich. Since then, Vecchio’s clientele has continued to expand to include The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Heritage Auctions, Bandujo Advertising and Design/NYC Department of Health, and online news and culture magazine, Gothamist.
With the help of Hip Video Promo guru, Andy Gesner, Vecchio’s band, Passerby, debuted its first single, "www,iig," on VillageVoice.com. Shortly after, “www,iig” won MTV's weekly competition show, The Freshmen, and landed in MTV’s regular video rotation.
Michael Vecchio is currently directing and editing a feature-length documentary on the world famous singalong “showtunes-only” West Village piano bar, Marie’s Crisis. In 2018, the short version of the film won a number of awards and was selected by fifteen festivals, including the Short Film Corner at Cannes, HBO’s NewFest, SCAD Savannah Film Festival, the IMDb Independent Shorts Awards and the Paley DocPitch.
In 2019, Vecchio launched Iconic Instruments, a cutting edge music software company that makes virtual instruments from some of the most historically significant (and deteriorating) instruments of the 20th Century.
Michael Vecchio's clientele continues to grow, most recently shooting 360 degree images for the NX Germano Studios New York plugin from Waves, an immersive virtual reality control room emulation for headphone mixing.
Michael Vecchio’s next project is an exhibition and documentary film that tells the story of a mysterious set of personal 3D slides from the 1950's that were taken around the world, including from behind the Iron Curtain. The film explores the life of the photographer (who was a violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra on State Department-sponsored diplomatic tours), the short-lived and much-forgotten “Realist” 3D format, the history of early color film and, more generally, America at mid-century.