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An Atlanta native, Curtis Bryant (b. 1949) earned his Master
of Music Theory in 1980 from Georgia State University, studying
composition with Charles Knox. Since 1983 Bryant's music has
received live performances steadily and has been heard across
North America and in Europe, Asia and Australia in concerts,
music festivals and on radio and television broadcasts, including
National Public Radio's Performance Today. Composing for
virtually all media from chamber to vocal to orchestral, his music
has been praised for being "immediately attractive and accessible,
with an emphasis on beauty of sound, simplicity of means, and
expression of feeling" (Atlanta Journal and Constitution).
Bryant has also composed music for numerous television series
and specials including the award winning Portrait of America
series produced by Turner Broadcasting. He has garnered six
Southern Regional Emmy Award nominations for original music
and numerous ASCAP Awards from the American Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Bryant's most recent major work is the opera, Zabette,
based on a libretto by Mary R. Bullard, which received its
premiere in 1999 by the Georgia State University School of
Music, Department of Opera Studies, under the artistic direction
of W. Dwight Coleman. The "Portrait Aria" from Zabette
received its Carnegie Hall premiere in March, 2001 by soprano,
Jeanne Brown, co-winner of the Center for Contemporary Opera
International Opera Singers Competition at Weill Recital
Hall. Other recent works by Bryant include
The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity (2003), a song cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble set to a text by award winning poet Stephen Bluestone,
Cantata for One Earth
commissioned by the United Nations Association USA, Atlanta
Chapter for the 50th Anniversary of the UN (1995), Letters
from Jack (1994), commissioned by the contemporary chamber
ensemble, Thamyris, Funfare (1993), commissioned by the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for its summer pops concert series,
and Dinosaurs: A Primeval Symphony (1991), commissioned
by the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. The latter has also been
performed by the Macon Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of
Oak Park and River Forest. Several of Bryant's compositions
for middle school string orchestra are published by
Neil A. Kjos Music Company in San Diego. His
Sonata for Cello and Piano is featured on the compact
disc Music by Southern Composers recorded on the Gasparo
Label by acclaimed performing artists Dorothy and Cary Lewis. Among
Bryant's recent television projects are original theme and
background music for public television specials, Georgia on My Mind,
Eugenia Price's South, Lost Atlanta: The Way We Were,
and The Great Dinosaurs of China produced by Georgia Public
Television. Exploring Two Frontiers: The Neurolab Space Shuttle
produced by Atlanta Public Television in coordination with NASA and
Morehouse School of Medicine, received broadcasts nationwide on the
Public Television Network. Bryant provided original music for
a national public service advertisement campaign for the Arthritis
Foundation, produced by SRW Media Group of Atlanta, which won
the Bronze Award at the Fifth Annual World Fest - Charleston
International Film Festival, 1997.
Curtis Bryant is a member of the American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the National Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Southeastern Composer's League (SCL),
the American Composers Forum (ACF), and
the American Music Center (AMC). He also has served as secretary
of The Atlanta Producer's Association (TAPA). Bryant has served as
adjudicator for numerous arts panels and organizations including the
Georgia Council for the Arts and the Georgia Music Teacher's
Association. He has received the rare honor of two All-Curtis
Bryant Concerts at the Piccolo Spoleto USA Music Festival (1985)
and on the Mostly Chamber Music concert series (1990). Bryant's
music has also been performed in the Atlanta Arts Festival, the Red
Lodge Music Festival, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Festival and the Harid Conservatory "Music of the South"
Program. He has served as part-time instructor at Georgia Perimeter College, Clayton College and State University and Tri-Cities High School and currently teaches at Georgia State University School of Music. Bryant lives in the Atlanta area
with his wife, Nancy, and son, Colman.
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