Michal Rataj studied musicology at the Charles University, Faculty of Arts of (1999) and composition at the Academy of Performing Arts, Faculty of Music and Dance in Prague (2003) with Ivan Kurz and Milan Slavický. He completed study stays at Royal Holloway University of London (1995), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Musikhoschule Hans Eisler (1998) and Universität der Künste, Berlin (2002). In 2006 he defended his doctoral thesis focused on electroacoustic music and contemporary concepts of radio art. In 2007-2008 he received a Fulbright scholarship to work at the Center For New Music And Technology (CNMAT) at the University Of California, Berkeley.
From 2000 to 2013 he worked as a music editor and producer for Czech Radio in the field of radio art and radio plays and was a member of the EBU Ars Acustica group. He founded rAdioCUSTICA, an internet portal focused on mapping the contemporary acoustic arts scene, and until 2022 he was the editor of the Radioateliér programme, Czech Radio Vltava. His radio works and collaborations have been successful in domestic and international festivals and competitions (Palma Ars Acustica 2015, Prix Marulić 2009, Prix Bohemia, Phonurgia Nova, etc.). He continues to collaborate with Czech Radio externally.
Michal is a composer of mostly electroacoustic and instrumental music and since 2008 has been performing solo in original sound performances in Europe and the USA. Recently his concerts are usually realized in different forms of spatial sound.
He teaches composition and electroacoustic music at the Department of Composition (HAMU Prague), and has participated in many European festivals (Ostrava Days, Prague Spring Festival, MetaMorf Trondheim, LAB30 Augsburg, V:NM Graz, AudioArt Kraków, NextWave, Multiplace, etc.). He has written music for dozens of radio plays and his compositions have been broadcast in many countries around the world. As a composer, he is also active in film and TV production. Since 2000, he has composed music for dozens of films, collaborated with Otakar Kosek, Radim Procházka, Lucie Králová, Martin Řezníček, Hana Železná, Kamila Zlatušková, and recently, in the field of feature films, mainly with Robert Sedláček.