Brief Biography

The music of award-winning composer Greg Bartholomew is frequently performed across the United States and in Canada, Europe and Australia. National Public Radio classical music reviewer Tom Manoff wrote:

Greg Bartholomew, a fine composer not afraid of accessibility, set Walt Whitman's To a Locomotive in Winter in a sturdy, lyrical style. Tuneful and diatonic, the music seemed appropriately Whitman-esque.

Bartholomew's works have been performed by such highly-regarded instrumental ensembles as Third Angle New Music Ensemble, the Alaska Brass, and Avenue Winds of San Francisco, and such acclaimed choral ensembles as Seattle Pro Musica, the Oratorio Society of Minnesota and Austin Vocal Arts. Beneath the Apple Tree, for viola da gamba and recorder, won First Place in the 2006 Orpheus Music Composition Competition. Leo, commissioned by the Esoterics, was a Finalist in the 2007 Cincinnati Camerata Composition Competition.

Born in 1957, Bartholomew earned degrees from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and the University of Washington. He studied composition with David Paul Mesler, and has participated in workshops, seminars and symposia with Krzysztof Penderecki, George Crumb, Bob Chilcott, Steven Sametz, Robert Kyr, R. Murray Schafer, Tan Dun and Gregg Smith. He sang with Seattle Pro Musica, an award-winning critically-acclaimed choral ensemble under the direction of Karen P. Thomas, for more than fifteen years, and studied violin with Teo Benson.

Five commercial recordings of his works are available:

• The String Trio for George Crumb has been recorded by the Langroise Trio.
• On the Ground Where We Live was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic for the Masterworks of the New Era CD series.
• The First Suite from Razumov for clarinet and string quartet is also available on the Masterworks of the New Era CD series recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic.
• Bartholomew's setting of excerpts from Kofi Annan's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, The 21st Century (A Girl Born in Afghanistan), has been released on CD by Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA).
• The Ars Brunensis Chorus recording of From the Odes of Solomon is available from Capstone Records.

His music is published by Art of Sound Music, Ars Nova Music, Orpheus Music and Burke & Bagley.

Bartholomew has received funding from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center, as well as annual ASCAP Standard Awards since 2003. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Washington Composers Forum, the Society of Composers, Inc., the American Music Center, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.