The music of Reynold Tharp has recently been described as “tone painting at its most adroit” evoked with “a prismatic palette” (Financial Times), and “gorgeous…a sensuous evocation of…colors and atmospheres…. Not content to write textures that are merely interesting or surprising, Tharp concocts sounds that are also ravishing and intoxicating” (San Francisco Classical Voice).
Reynold’s music has been performed in the U.S. and Europe by groups such as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Ensemble Diffraction (Paris), the Cal State Long Beach New Music Ensemble, the Orchestre Lyrique de Region Avignon-Provence, and the Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam). In 2006 his orchestral work Cold Horizon was performed at the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. Awards for his music include Columbia University’s Bearns Prize for his orchestra piece Drift and BMI’s William Schuman Prize. He has recently written pieces for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and Paris-based pianist Ivan Ilíc. Current projects include an orchestral work for the U.C. Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for spring 2010.
Reynold was born in Indiana and grew up in southern California. After early training as a pianist, he studied composition and history at Oberlin College and Conservatory and later earned a Ph.D. in composition at the University of California, Berkeley, studying with Richard Felciano and Jorge Liderman. As recipient of Berkeley’s Ladd Fellowship he spent two years in Paris studying composition with Philippe Leroux and orchestration with Marc-André Dalbavie.
Currently assistant professor of composition and theory at UIUC, Reynold has also taught at Northwestern University, U. C. Berkeley, and San Francisco State University.