Alfred REED (b.1921)
Alfred
Reed was born on Manhattan Island in New York City on January 25, 1921. His
formal music training began at the age of 10, when he studied the trumpet. As a
teenager, he played with small hotel combos in the Catskill Mountains. His
interests shifted from performing to arranging and composition. In 1938, he
started working in the Radio Workshop in New York as a staff composer/arranger
and assistant conductor. With the onset of World War II, he enlisted and was
assigned to the 529th Army Air Corps Band. During his three and a half years of
service, he produced nearly 100 compositions and arrangements for band. After
his discharge, Reed enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music and studied
composition with Vittorio Giannini. In 1953, he enrolled at Baylor University,
serving as conductor of the Symphony Orchestra while he earned the Bachelor of
Music degree (1955). A year later, he received his Master of Music degree. His
interest in the development of educational music led him to serve as executive
editor of Hansen Publishing from 1955 to 1966. He left that position to become a
professor of music at the University of Miami, where he served until his
retirement in 1993. He continues to compose and has made numerous appearances as
guest conductor in many nations, most notably in Japan.
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