Jon Jeffrey Grier
Composer

        

Chamber Music for Strings     Chamber Music for Winds & Brass     Orchestra     Band

Piano     Vocal      Jazz     Recordings     ordering info     Links

Education

D.M.A., Composition, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, August, 1987; composition and electronic music study with Dr. Gordon R. Goodwin and Dr. Samuel O. Douglas.

M.M., Theory, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, August 1982; advanced studies with Dr. Jerry Curry and Dr. Samuel O. Douglas.

M.M., Composition, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, December 1977; composition and theory study with Ramon Zupko.

B.A., Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI, June 1975, Phi Beta Kappa. Major in music, with concentrations in composition and education; composition/theory study with Dr. Lawrence Rackley Smith.

Professional Activity

1988-Present: Instructor of Advanced Placement music theory and music history, and composer-in-residence at the Greenville Fine Arts Center, a magnet school for the gifted and talented in the arts in the School District of Greenville County. Duties include classroom instruction in traditional analytical theory, vocabulary, sight-singing and ear-training, historical style and its evolution, form analysis, and introductory acoustics. Occasional tutoring of young composers; authored majority of instructional materials used in FAC theory courses.

1985-Present: Keyboardist and arranger with Greenville-based groups Oracle, a jazz-fusion ensemble, and Edgewise, a jazz piano trio.

Selected Commissions, Grants, Awards, Major Performances

2000

A Child I Was, an SATB madrigal, performed and awarded 2nd Place in the 21st Annual Choral Composition Contest and Festival sponsored by the Ithaca College School of Music.

Significant Others, for viola and bass, performed as part of the Southeastern Composers' League Forum 2000, held at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Significant Others also awarded co-honorable mention (no 1st place award given) in the International Society of Bassists 1997 Composition Contest.

1999

Commissioned by Jennifer John, violinist on the faculty of the University of Colorado, to compose Present Affections, a work for violin and piano to be recorded and issued on CD. In progress.

Individual Artist Grant, from the Metropolitan Arts Council (South Carolina Arts Commission) to support the manufacture of CD's of the string quartets recorded by Ceruti Quartet; project completed January 2001.

The Number of Things, for string quartet, alto sax, and marimba, composed to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Greenville Fine Arts Center; premiered 25 April 99 on the anniversary concert.

1997

Felis Imperius, for chamber orchestra, premiered by the Greenville County Youth Orchestra.

Nostalgias, for piano trio (a major revision of Rondoids [1991]), premiered by the Merling Piano Trio of Western Michigan University in a series of in-home and public concerts 16-19 April; composer participation supported by a grant from the American Composers Forum.

In Pursuit, for orchestra, performed by Greenville Symphony Orchestra, 18-19 January.

1996

Quartet #2, the "Nautical", performed by the Ceruti String Quartet of the University of Memphis in the Memphis New Music Festival (premiere of major revision).

1995

Brieflets, for String Quartet (Quartet #1), performed by the Ceruti String Quartet at the the Memphis New Music Festival and the Tennessee MTNA convention.

1994

Individual Artist Grant, Metropolitan Arts Council (South Carolina Arts Commission), for the composition of In Pursuit, commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the Greenville Fine Arts Center, premiered by the Greenville County Youth Orchestra 2 May 95.

1993

Alliance for Quality Education grant for the composition & production of Holiday Jazz, 11 seasonal carols and songs arranged in various jazz styles for string quartet; recorded Oct.-Nov.'93 by FAC student performers.

1992

Individual Artist Grant, from the Metropolitan Arts Council (South Carolina Arts Commission) to support the composition of Soliloquy for the Greenville County Youth Orchestra.

Incidental music for Fine Arts Center theater production of Where is the Queen?, realized on the Ensoniq VFX-SD sequencing synthesizer.

Rondo Bacchanale, for strings, timpani, and violin solo, premiered by Greenville County Youth Orchestra.

1991

Rondoids, for piano trio, commissioned and premiered by the Kandinsky Trio , artists-in-residence at Roanoke College. (Later revised and re-titled Nostalgias.)

Alliance for Quality Education grant to support recording of various FAC student instrumental ensembles in a professional studio; studio recording unit added to theory curriculum.

1990

Individual Artist Grant to support the composition of Yings and Yangs, for two violas.

1989

Co-Variants, for orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the GCYO.

1987

New York premiere of Two by Four, for two pianos, by new music ensemble GAGEEGO.

1986

Advancing Dimensions, for strings, voices, percussion, and piano, commissioned and premiered by the Greenville Fine Arts Center, composer conducting. Math/geometry theme; choreography by FAC dance instructor, poetry and stage props contributed by FAC students.

1984

Individual Artist's Grant (Metropolitan Arts Council) to support composition of Cosmic Encounters, a collection of 12 sketches, each emphasizing one of the 12 chromatic intervals, for intermediate piano. Includes interval theory & analysis exercises for each piece; space exploration theme.

Excerpts from Summer Sweet, for stage band, performed at the Memphis State University New Music Festival XI; Summer Sweet premiered by the Kalamazoo College Jazz Lab Band, June '83.

1983

Two by Four and The Ant Hill, for two pianos, four hands, commissioned by the Michigan Music Teachers Association, and premiered at the MMTA convention in Detroit.

1982

2nd place in Southeastern Composers' League graduate composition contest with Five, for brass quintet; Five performed October 1984 at College Music Society national convention by the Nashville Contemporary Brass Quintet.

1981

ASCAP Young Composer's Grant awarded for Cumulo-Nimbus, for symphonic band; Cumulo-Nimbus performed at Symposium VI for New Band Music by the Virginia Intercollegiate Band.

1980

Mosaics Music commissioned by South Carolina Educational Radio Network; used for 5 years on Mosaics, a weekly news/features program.

        

Chamber Music for Strings     Chamber Music for Winds & Brass     Orchestra     Band

Piano     Vocal      Jazz     Recordings     ordering info     Links

 

Top