Bruce Wolosoff

“ Bruce Wolosoff integrates romantic, modern classical, jazz, and blues music into an authentic American voice, and he is a composer I want to hear more of!”
-Thomas Bohlert, The East Hampton Star


Bruce Wolosoff is a musician who has consistently gone his own way and resisted facile categorization in any genre or niche. His early love and study of diverse forms of music has worked its way into his classical compositions creating an authentic language that is indeed an American voice. This was very evident in "Songs without Words", (18 divertimenti for string quartet) composed for the Carpe Diem String Quartet and released on Naxos American Classics, in which Wolosoff presents a kaleidoscopically eclectic survey of American popular styles as viewed through the lens of a contemporary classical composer. The choreographer Ann Reinking heard this work and was inspired by these pieces to create a new ballet, "The White City,” with Melissa Thodos for Thodos Dance Chicago, which premiered in 2011.  Wolosoff is currently composing another large scale ballet for the same company to be premiered in 2013.

Born in New York City in 1955, Wolosoff’s earliest childhood memory is of sitting at the piano, experimenting with the sounds he could make. He began formal lessons at the age of three and by the time he was 13 was zooming around his neighborhood on his bike giving piano lessons to other kids. Throughout his teens, Wolosoff played in local rock, jazz, and fusion bands, while simultaneously pursuing his more formal studies as a classical pianist with the world renowned piano professor German Diez (with whom he studied for over 16 years), and later with distinguished pianists Evelyne Crochet and Richard Goode. Wolosoff holds degrees from Bard College, where he worked with composer Joan Tower, and the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to his classical studies, Wolosoff studied jazz piano and harmony for many years with the legendary Charlie Banacos, and piano and composition with jazz great Jaki Byard.

Throughout his 20’s, Wolosoff worked as a freelance classical pianist in New York City, performing as recitalist and soloist in New York’s leading classical venues. He was Artistic Director of “Music of Our Time", an 80th birthday tribute to Olivier Messiaen at Lincoln Center, and released a critically acclaimed recording of piano music by Busoni for Music and Arts Records.

In his 30’s, Wolosoff stopped performing publicly to devote himself more fully to composing. Early commissions included writing for the Columbus Symphony, the Lark Quartet, Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri, and the 21st Century Consort, who have commissioned five works from the composer through the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. In more recent years, Wolosoff has written several pieces for violinist Charles Wetherbee, worked with the Carpe Diem String Quartet, composed “The Passions” for the Minnesota Ballet, and collaborated with British librettist Michael Hall on the chamber opera, “Madimi”, which was performed in in NYC in 2008 by the Center for Contemporary Opera. The acclaimed Eroica Trio premiered Wolosoff’s “Tantric Scherzo” in 2011. And in 2010, after many years away from performing, Wolosoff returned to the concert stage to perform a recital of his own works for piano.This live performance was just released on CD (and by digital download) under the title “Many Worlds.” In addition to the new ballet, Wolosoff is currently at work with librettist Debbie Danielpour on an opera, “The Great Good Thing,” based on the young adult novel by Roderick Townley.