Aaron Grad (b. 1980) is a young American composer and guitarist, whose music embraces both his roots in popular culture and his training in the Western tradition. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he was a listless student of piano and violin from age five. At ten he started fresh on guitar, and was soon writing songs, forming bands, and playing his first jazz gigs. Mr. Grad moved to New York in 1998 to study jazz guitar at New York University, but he was quickly seduced by the “downtown” new music scene. While completing his Bachelor of Music degree in three years, he performed with his own groups at The Knitting Factory and Cornelia St. Café, and founded and directed a concert series at Judson Memorial Church. In the past six years Mr. Grad’s emphasis shifted to composing, and his catalog has grown to include over 80 works.
In the fall of 2006, Mr. Grad enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory to pursue a Master’s Degree in Composition in the studio of Christopher Theofanidis. His current project, Mandala of the Two Realms, is a work for large orchestra in which the four movements provide music to accompany live onstage performances of Tai Chi forms. The fall of 2007 will bring two world premieres: Confused Blues, commissioned by the Peabody Jazz Orchestra and featuring bass soloist Michael Formanek, and Re:Porter, a piece commissioned by the Saratoga Chamber Players (NY) for baritone and chamber ensemble, inspired by the songs of Cole Porter and featuring texts by Mr. Grad.
The 2005-06 season featured three world premieres for Mr. Grad. On January 22, 2006 the Jolles Duo performed Whiskey & Fred for violin and harp at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Islip, New York. On March 19, 2006, members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic offered Creatures of Kings County, scored for flute, clarinet, piano, bass and percussion, with narration written by the composer. This is the first work ever commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic for their Music Off the Walls chamber music series at the Brooklyn Museum’s Cantor Auditorium. In August 2006, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble (CT) presented The Aeolian Harp, for guitar, flute, violin, viola and cello, based on a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Besides these world premiere performances, this season also featured a New York premiere performance of the song cycle Clear White on texts by Charles Wright, performed at St. Paul’s Chapel, as well as Mr. Grad’s recording debut, with the piece Lepidopterology for flute, clarinet and piano appearing on the disc “New American Masters, vol. 1” by the Palisades Virtuosi (NJ).
The highlights of 2004-05 included a recital of Mr. Grad’s works at the Rose Studio of Lincoln Center. This concert featured world premiere performances of Portria (tenor, oboe and strings), Coo/Rant and Slash Fantasy (acoustic and electric bass) and the Sonata for Violin and Piano, as well as performances by the composer’s band Q-Diamond (guitar, saxophone, bass and drums) with the composer on guitar. On June 14, 2005, Grad’s Concertino for Clarinet was debuted by Alan R. Kay and the New York Chamber Ensemble at the Cape May Music Festival. This work earned the composer an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2006, as well as grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer.
Mr. Grad previously studied privately with Randall Woolf and Carlos Carrillo, but he credits the bulk of his education and opportunities to his jobs for orchestras in New York. He first worked as the Production Assistant for the American Composers Orchestra, then stepped up to Production Manager for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and finally served as Production Manager and Librarian for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Since 2005, Mr. Grad has been the official Program Annotator for Orpheus, writing program notes and performing interviews that appear in the Carnegie Hall house programs. He is a member of ASCAP, the American Music Center and the American Composers Forum. He currently lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his girlfriend, Jen and their cat, Fea, but he misses their longtime neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn.