Richard Grayson (composer)

Richard Grayson (March 25, 1941 July 3, 2016) was compositions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
an American composer and pianist. Grayson was also a church organist for 35 years, most re-
cently at St. Martin of Tours in West Los Angeles, from
which he retired in 2009.
1 Biography Grayson died on July 3, 2016, at age 75 (Tranquada
2016).
Richard Grayson was born in New York on March 25,
1941 (Anon. 2016a; Anon. 2016b). He received his
PhD in composition from UCLA in 1969only the third 2 Compositions (selective list)
person to receive a UCLA music Ph.D., after Michael
Zearott and Edward Applebaum (Wager 1989)and in Anybodys Guess, for multiple electronic keyboards
the same year joined the music faculty of Occidental Col-
lege, where he taught until his retirement in 2001. His Aurore, for ute, clarinet, harp, piano, violin, and
32 years of annual keyboard improvisation concerts, in cello
which he improvised based on audience requests, were
Fantasy on Broadway Boogie Woogie, electronic
a highlight of that colleges concert season (Tranquada
music with video
2016). He is also a composer of instrumental and vocal
music as well as of live electronic music. His awards in- Homage to J.S. Bach, for harpsichord, with tape de-
clude a Fulbright Scholarship to study in 196566 with lay
Henri Pousseur in Brussels and at the Cologne Courses
for New Music (Stockhausen 1971, 200), and a compo- Listen for the Bell, electronic music with video
sition grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Meadow Music, for solo piano
From fall 2001 until June 2016 he taught music theory
courses at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica (Anon. Mr. 528, for three disklaviers and three clavinovas
2016b). (1996)
For over three decades Grayson has given concerts and O Broadway, electronic music with video
seminars for the Yamaha Music Education Foundation
and has visited Japan many times to perform and teach. Ostinato, for two synthesizers and a sequencer
For the past ten summers he has taught improvisation
courses at the Showa Academy of Music in Kawasaki, Promenade, for two amplied accordions
Japan, and was also invited to give seminars and perfor- Rain, for piano, ring modulator, and tape delay
mances at conservatories in Taiwan, China, and Vietnam.
He has been a featured performer at several US national Rocky Road Ripple, electronic music with video
piano pedagogy conferences and was twice invited to give
master classes in improvisation at the Ocina de Msica Shoot the Piano Player, computer-controlled pianos
Festival in Curitiba, Brazil. (1995)

His performance credits include six recordings of con-

temporary music on which he is featured as pianist, and
four which include his compositions. For many years he
3 References
was on the board of the Monday Evening concerts at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and frequently per-
formed on that series. Three of Graysons electronic key-
board works were performed at an historic University of
Massachusetts, Lowell concert featuring the re-creation
of George Antheil's complete Ballet Mcanique (Pfeier
1999). Two of these pieces, Mr. 528 and Shoot the Piano
Player have been issued on CD by the Electronic Music
Foundation in New York. In September 2001 he gave
a solo concert of his improvisation and visual-electronic
Anon. 2016a. "Richard M. Grayson" (obituary).
Los Angeles Times (July 1017) (accessed August
27, 2016).
Anon. 2016b. "Richard Grayson" (obituary). New
York Times (July 10) (accessed August 27, 2016).
Pfeier, Ellen. 1999. "Music Review: Hearing the
Din of History". The Boston Globe (November 20)
(accessed April 11, 2016).

1
2 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1971. Texte zur Musik

3 (19631970), edited by Dieter Schnebel. Du-
Mont Dokumente. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont
Schauberg.
Tranquada, Jim. 2016. "Richard Grayson, Music
Professor Emeritus, Dies". Occidental College
The Liberal Arts College in Los Angeles website
(accessed August 26, 2016)
Wager, Gregg. 1989. "Professor Taking Musical
Improvisation on the Road". Los Angeles Times
(May 20) (accessed 11 April 2016).

4 Further reading
Cariaga, Daniel. 1988. "Pianist/Improviser
Grayson, Occidentals Local Hero". Los Angeles
Times (February 26) (accessed April 11, 2016).

Klarner, Ann. 1992. "Concert Is Music to His

Years". Los Angeles Times (February 20) (accessed
April 11, 2016).
Shulgold, Marc. 1985. "He Makes It up as He Plays
Along". Los Angeles Times (February 21) (accessed
11 April 2016).

5 External links
Richard Graysons Home Page
Video Excerpts from Richard Graysons Improvisa-
tion Concerts on YouTube
 3

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