Gregory Short
Encyclopedia
Gregory Norman Short was an American composer and pianist. Gregory Short was one of the first pianists to offer entire programs of American and Northwest music to audiences in Seattle, WA and through his The American Composer series on Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

. He attended the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 of Music, the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, and the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

 where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition and Theory. Short’s compositions have been performed in Canada, Germany, and the United States.

A composer who produced more than 300 works, much of Short's inspiration came from Northwest Native American traditional culture. "I felt there a genuine spirituality. That nature and man are the same. And between the real world and the spirit world, there is no division." He completed a four-part cycle of compositions about the dynamics of the mountains and original people in the Northwest. In addition to Native American cultural traditions, he found inspirational themes in the Bible, novels of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

, essays of Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān; Arabic , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer...

, and pivotal social changes such as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Many of his compositions drew inspiration from the people and environment of state of Washington, where he was an active composer and pianist as a long-time resident on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

. Short was named the 1989 Washington State Centennial Artist.

With a long career as a pianist, "I wanted to put together the life I wanted to live. (Writing music) is kind of like you are in trance. I know that I put in a lot of time." He tried to write each day from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., and most days he was back at his worktable by 6 p.m. for another two or three hours of composition. As with Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...

, whose music manuscripts Short found at the Juilliard library, he sought to express the entire universe in music. In the years before his death, Short was composing and arranging for piano and orchestra with the aid of his computer. Moreover, he was working on a film score and a book.

Recorded works

  1. Northwest Composers Vol. II (Florence Mesler Recordings, 1972) Gregory Short, The Pilgrim, song cycle for soprano, piano, and percussion from Kim Si-sup's poem translated by David Mesler; Florence Mesler (Lyric-Spinto Soprano), Gregory Short, (Piano), Phil Curtis assisted by Roy Freedman (percussion) )
  2. Celebrating Six Years at the Met (Random Touch Records, Inc., 1994) Gregory Short: Blue Dawn; Kendall Feeney (piano), James Schoepflin (clarinet), and Charlotte Bickford (violin)
  3. Reflections of the Northwest (TROY 184, 1995) Gregory Short, The Raven Speaks, based on Northwest Coast Indian Songs and Dances; Northwest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Spain
  4. Natural Symphony - Featuring Seattle's Finest Classical Musical Artists (Classical KING-FM 98.1, 1999) Gregory Short, Mt. Takhoma; Northwest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Spain
  5. Soli Deo Gloria" (Stephen H. Owades, 1999) Gregory Short, Mass; Richard Clark (cantor); Jeremy Friedman, Matt Masie, Zhanna Maysyuk (percussion); Paul Chudigian (electronics setup), conducted by John Zielinski
  6. The Basket (NXNW 080199, 1999) Gregory Short additional orchestrations
  7. Pahto, for large orchestra (Dialekt Recordings, 2000) Gregory Short, Pahto; Northwest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Spain
  8. Mystical Mountains (KOCH 3-7399-2 HI, 2001) Gregory Short, Mount Takhoma; Northwest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Spain

External links

  1. Answers.com Mount Takhoma, for orchestra
  2. Carole Beers, Gregory Norman Short, 60, Music Composer, Teacher (obituary), Seattle Times, April 6, 1999
  3. Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Composers Works Performed by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra
  4. Raven Speaks Gregory Short
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