Donald Grantham

Donald Grantham

Biography

Donald Grantham (born 9 November 1947 in Duncan, Oklahoma) is an American composer and educator. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Grantham went on to study at the American Conservatory in France with Nadia Boulanger.

Grantham is highly regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential composers for winds working today. Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, First Prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony's Awards to American Composers, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, three First Prizes in the NBA/William Revelli Competition, two First Prizes in the ABA/Ostwald Competition, and First Prize in the National Opera Association's Biennial Composition Competition.

His music has been praised for its "elegance, sensitivity, lucidity of thought, clarity of expression and fine lyricism" in a Citation awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In recent years his works have been performed by the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta and the American Composers Orchestra among many others, and he has fulfilled commissions in media from solo instruments to opera. His music is published by Piquant Press, Peer-Southern, E. C. Schirmer and Mark Foster, and a number of his works have been commercially recorded. The composer resides in Austin, Texas and is Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin. Along with Kent Kennan he is co-author of The Technique of Orchestration, published by Prentice-Hall.

Donald Grantham is the Frank C. Erwin Centennial Professor in Music at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music, where he teaches composition.

Works for Winds

• Baron Cimetiere's Mambo (2004)
• Baron Piquant on Pointe (2011)
• Baron La Croix's Shuffle (2010)
• Baron Samedi's Sarabande and Soft-Shoe (2005)
• Bum's Rush (1994)
• Cloudless Day, Bitter Sky (2002)
• Come, Memory (2002)
• Concerto in One Movement for Bass Trombone (1979)
• Court Music (2005)
• Don't You See? (2001)
• Fantasy on "La Golondrina" (2003)
• Fantasy on Mr. Hyde's Song (1998)
• Farewell to the Gray (2001)
• Fayetteville Bop (2002)
• From an Alabama Songbook (2007)
• JS Dances (2003)
• J'ai été au bal ("I went to the dance") (1999)
• Kentucky Harmony (2000)
• Music for the Blanton (2006)
• Northern Celebration (2001)
• Phantasticke Spirits (2002)
• Southern Harmony (1998)
• Spangled Heavens (2010)
• Starry Crown (2007)
• Symphony for Winds and Percussion (2009)
• Trumpet Gloria (2006)
• Tuba Concerto (Grantham) (2012)
• Variations on an American Cavalry Song (2001)

References

• Donald Grantham - Official Website (Piquant Press)
• Camphouse, Mark, editor. (2004) Composers on Composing for Band. Volume 2. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 97–124.
• Davis, Paul Gordon (2007). The historical and musical correlation of "The southern harmony and musical companion" with Donald Grantham's "Southern harmony". University of Texas at Austin, Doctoral Dissertation.
• McCutchen, Mathew G. (2009) An Examination of the History and Winning Pieces of the National Band Association's Composition Contest: 1977-2008. Florida State University, Doctoral Dissertation.