Michael Omartian - Life and Career

Life and Career

Omartian was born in Evanston, Illinois. He is of Armenian descent.

In the late 1960s, Omartian helped launch Campus Crusade for Christ's new music outreach group, "The New Folk." In that capacity he arranged much of the music and assisted in training the singers. He was also a founding member of the 1970s disco-funk band Rhythm Heritage, and he also played as a session musician for artists including Koinonia, Steely Dan, The Four Tops, Seals and Crofts and Loggins & Messina.

Omartian has recorded a number of highly polished contemporary Christian music albums under his own name, including White Horse, Adam Again, Conversations (an instrumental album). Virtually all of his solo albums are now out-of-print. Omartian produced several Christian albums, most notably for The Imperials on the award-winning albums "Priority" and "One More Song For You" – which were produced in Omartian's basement studio on tight budgets.

In 2003, Omartian scored an audio book rendition of the biblical gospels, called "Gospels Come To Life". The audio Bible was read by fellow CCM writer/musician Michael W. Smith, based on musical ideas by Smith. The Spanish version of this audio Bible was narrated by CCM artist, Jaci Velasquez.

Toward the end of 2006 he contributed to an album with Annie Herring (of 2nd Chapter of Acts) called One on One, he plays piano as the solo instrument throughout with Herring providing vocals. One on One was his second collaboration with Herring; the first being the 1983 album Together Live, a collaborative, in-concert effort with Herring's family trio, 2nd Chapter of Acts, and Omartian's wife, Stormie. The live double-LP album was recorded in 1982 at The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California. The album was also released on in video format.

Omartian is one of the few producers in recording history to have number one records in three consecutive decades (1970s, 80s and 90s). Others in this group include George Martin (1964, 1970 and 1982) for example.