Jack Gallagher’s Symphony No. 2 “Ascendant,” recorded for Naxos by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta, was acclaimed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “a work of staggering, unending brilliance” and by Gramophone (UK) for “the prodigious energy, long-term thinking and melodic fecundity of Gallagher’s exuberant inspiration, to say nothing of the breathtaking skill and swaggering confidence with which he handles his forces.”
A companion Naxos/Falletta/LSO disc was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine and by Audiophile Audition, which found Gallagher’s Symphony in One Movement: Threnody “truly a work of genius.” His Berceuse, recorded on the same disc, was hailed by astronomer and Slate contributor Philip Plait as “a work of such staggering beauty that it makes me want to be a better person.”
Gallagher is the Olive Williams Kettering Professor of Music at The College of Wooster, Ohio. His works have been performed or recorded by the London Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra of Krakow, Kiev Philharmonic, U.S. Air Force Band of Flight, Cincinnati Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Wind Ensemble, GRAMMY®-winning pianist Angelin Chang, the South African National Youth String Orchestra, pianist Frank Huang, Trio Terzetto, and others.
Included on 18 published compact discs, on the Naxos, Centaur, Musical Heritage Society, Vienna Modern Masters, ERM, Summit, Capstone, Promuse, Beauport Classical, Aliud, and Altissimo labels, his compositions have been broadcast by more than 150 classical radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Sirius XM Radio, RadioArtsIndonesia.com, and on in-flight broadcasts of Continental, AirTran, Jet Blue and Frontier Airlines.
The recipient in 2016 of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for composition, Gallagher has received awards, grants, fellowships, or recognition from the Charles Ives Center for American Music, Meet the Composer, the Yaddo Corporation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Petit Jean International Art Song Festival, the Barlow International Composition Contest, the Virginia Chapter of the College Band Directors National Association, and The College of Wooster Henry Luce III Award for Distinguished Scholarship.
Gallagher is the Olive Williams Kettering Professor of Music at The College of Wooster, Ohio. He holds doctoral and master’s degrees in composition from Cornell University and the bachelor’s degree cum laude from Hofstra University. He studied composition with Elie Siegmeister, Robert Palmer and Burrill Phillips, participated in seminars with Karel Husa, Thea Musgrave and Ned Rorem, and in masterclasses with Aaron Copland, George Crumb and William Bolcom.
His print editions are published by Editions Bim (Vuarmarens, Switzerland), Kalmus Masters Music Publications, Lawson-Gould, Manduca Music, The Brass Press, and The Piano Teachers’ Press.
As a producer, Gallagher’s recording for TNC Records of Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques with pianist Angelin Chang, conductor John McLaughlin Williams and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony won a 2007 GRAMMY Award in the classical category “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra.”
Jack Gallagher composer 