composer Jack Gray

Jack Gray graduated from Dickinson College,
and then earned his doctorate in composition at Cornell University, where he studied with two wonderful composers: Robert Palmer, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Karel Husa.

After a period of teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, he began a new career in computer technology. At American Express, he served a pivotal role in the evolution of the
Authorizer Assistant, one of the first commercial applications of artificial intelligence.

In the 1980s, Jack worked as an advocate of new concert music via the Arizona Composers Forum. He also produced and hosted Music In The Present Tense, a weekly, hour-long radio program devoted to interviews with and music by living composers. Arizona composers figured most prominently, but guests such as Philip Glass, Virgil Thomson, and Libby Larsen made appearances as well. During this time, Jack focused on conventional live performances of his music by groups such as the Nouveau West Chamber Orchestra, the Flagstaff Symphony, the Arizona State University New Music Ensemble, and the Amabile Quartet.

In the 1990s, like most composers of his generation, Jack turned his attention toward music and video technology, and began working exclusively on the production of his own recordings and films.

At present, his energies are focused on IAM
(a synthesizer-based ensemble devoted to the performance of improvised "art music"), and
Shord and Sweed Music, a company he founded to produce music for advertising.

Jack's ongoing credo is to (attempt to!) create truly unique and compelling musical magic. He is a strong believer that music must project personality - openly and without reserve - and that there is little value in rehashing what has been done before unless it can be done better (and there's the rub, of course!).