Douglas Anderson, composer:

Douglas Anderson is a composer, conductor, educator, and producer who has been active in the New York area for 45 years.  He studied music and psychology at Columbia University, where his three degrees culminated in a doctorate in music composition in 1980.  His professional career began as a jazz musician at the age of 12, and he performed widely in the Eastern U.S. before moving to New York to attend college.

Dr. Anderson’s compositions include chamber works, orchestral works, concerti, solo vocal and choral music, electronic music, radio drama, jazz, film, and musical theater, as well as many choral and instrumental arrangements.  His music has been heard around the world for decades, notably on Voice of America radio abroad, and nationally in radio dramas broadcast on NPR.

In 1991 his music was presented in a retrospective concert by the New Renaissance Chamber Artists. His chamber opera Faust Triumphant was premiered in 1995 at the International Faust Festival, and was revived in a production in 2016 by the American Chamber Opera Company.  In 2009 he was a guest composer at the Bar Harbor (Maine) Music Festival.  In 2011 he was a featured composer on eightstringsandawhistle.com.   For the 2012-13 season he was composer-in-residence for A Potpourri of Song, in Brooklyn, NY.

He is on the faculty of the Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, where he is Professor of Music and was for 14 years Chairman of the Music and Art Department.

 

Douglas Anderson, conductor:

A conductor equally adept with theatrical, vocal, and instrumental music, Douglas K. Anderson has since his debut (with the Boston Ballet in 1973) conducted a great variety of ensembles and over 75 premieres, including the first electronic music opera and the first concerto for steel drum and orchestra. His repertoire includes standard operas, symphonic and choral music, as well as a wide range of unusual works from all eras. His operatic repertoire alone consists of over 100 complete operas conducted in over 400 performances.   He is in regular demand as a guest conductor, and is currently the Conductor of the BMCC Downtown Symphony, the Director of the Putnam Chorale, and Conductor of the American Chamber Opera Company.

He has been critically acclaimed by both the New York and national press, and awarded citations from both the Mayor of New York and the Borough President of Manhattan.  He is currently on the faculty of the Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, where he is a Professor of Music and was for 14 years Chairman of the Music and Art Department.