Michiel Irik was born in Sydney, Australia in 1953 of Dutch parents. He studied for his bachelor of Music degree at Sydney University, including composition under Peter Sculthorpe and Dr. Eric Gross. He was awarded the Sarah Theresa Mackinson Prize for Composition in 1975, and in 1982 he published a music textbook An Approach To Twentieth Century Composition through the N.S.W. Department of School Education.

Michiel has worked as a Higher School Certificate music composition examiner, and represented northern rural N.SW. at the 1985 Asian Composers Conference. In 1986 he undertook a short course of study in traditional Chinese instrumental performance at the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing - The Peoples Republic of China), and on his return to Australia his a Capella composition The Jade Flute was awarded first prize in the 1988 Intervarsity Choral Composition Competition.

Michiel Irik's music has been performed in Australia by The Magpie Musicians, Windbags, duo pianists Nigel Butterly & Deborah Priest, the Sydney Mandolins, Austraysis, the Sydney Guitar Trio, trombonist Gregory van der Struik, the Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armidale Symphony Orchestra. His music has been recorded and broadcast on ABC-FM, 2MBS-FM and 2ARM-FM, and more recently in Belgium and the Netherlands by Duo Contemporian, the Selmer Saxophone Quartet and the bass clarinetist Henri Bok.

From 1990 - 1993 Michiel Irik was guest conductor with the Armidale Symphony Orchestra, and from 1993 - 1997 was also Vice-President of the Fellowship of Australian Composers.