Conrad Winslow’s buoyant, hard-edged, and deeply architectural music,“remains tautly controlled and coherent, but bursts with variety both harmonic and gestural” (Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia…). Raised in Homer, Alaska, Conrad began making things from scratch by watching his parents chop down trees and build a log cabin home in the woods. Childhood road-trips across the United States & Canada and a residential stint in Hawai’i have taught him to look wide. The result has been called “compelling” (New York Times) and described as a “scenic, boisterous and bumpy ride” (Albany Times Union).
Conrad’s instrumental music has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the American Composers Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Juilliard Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the NYU Symphony, Bala Brass, and Gaudete Brass (who recorded Record of a Lost Tribe for upcoming release on Cedille Records), among many others. His songs have been presented by The New York Festival of Song and The Coterie (co-founded by librettist Royce Vavrek and Tony-nominated soprano Lauren Worsham).
Awards and support have come from ASCAP (ASCAPlus, multiple Morton Gould awards), The Jerome Fund, New York Youth Symphony, Yale Glee Club, The Juilliard School (2010 Juilliard Orchestra Competition, New Juilliard Ensemble commission), and New Music USA (CAP Grants). Current projects include composing new work for The American Composers Orchestra, and directing the Wild Shore Festival for New Music in Homer, Alaska. Recent commissions include work for the International Double Reed Society (for bassoonists Rebekah Heller & Adrian Morejon), Cadillac Moon Ensemble, and a ballet score for choreographer Justin Peck.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, an M.M. degree in film scoring from NYU, where he studied with Justin Dello Joio, and an Honors A.B. degree in Music from Rollins College, where he studied with Daniel Crozier.