Douglas Anderson

Douglas Anderson is a composer, conductor, educator, and producer who has been active in the New York area for 50 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 United States before moving to New York to attend college. His work as a conductor has been his performance focus for the last several decades.

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. He has been a featured composer, a composer-in-residence, a guest composer, and had two retrospective concerts. He recently retired from the faculty of the Borough of Manhattan Community College/ CUNY, where he was Professor of Music and was for 14 years Chairman of the Music and Art Department. 

Critics have said the following about his music:

“What the composer achieves is to give a new thrust to the chamber symphony genre, almost an homage…The lyricism, the freshness, the color of Anderson’s atonal compositions are elegant; and with their sensitivity they invite us to live intimate moments, to think and reflect…”

“Though the musical approaches may have similar launching points of motivic development, the resulting solo works here are all rather fascinating in their own way.  Listeners will likely gravitate to the ones that are closer to their personal preferences while also finding much to appreciate and explore in this interesting collection of chamber music.”

“Douglas Anderson manages to create works that make a nod to the early modernist period yet sound thoroughly current and original. They are invigorating and yes, coherent in the best ways.”

“What in the end matters for us is the impact the music makes on us as listeners. And it is that which stands out. This is music of vitality and charm, a lyrical quality and long, intrinsically interesting melodic part writing.”