Michael Small began playing the piano and recorder at the age of seven. He joined the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir in 1999 and has sung in many of the choir’s performances, including James MacMillan’s Quickening and Mahler’s Symphony no. 3, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Small is a member of Birkenhead School Chapel Choir, with which he served as head chorister. He sang Chichester Psalms with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., at the Harrogate Festival in July 2002.