Gregory Spears writes instrumental and vocal music that blends together stylistic aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. His work has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (New York Times), “remarkable” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker). Spears' first opera Paul’s Case was noted for its “solid dramatic timing, compassionate characterizations, and huge potential” (Philadelphia Inquirer - David Patrick Stearns’ Best in Classical Music for 2009).
His music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Center City Opera Theater, Opera Index, members of the Los Angeles Opera Domingo-Thornton Young Artists Program, the NOW Ensemble (MATA), Present Music Ensemble, So Percussion, and the Eighth Blackbird Ensemble. His opera Paul’s Case is being developed by American Opera Projects. Spears was recently commissioned by the JACK Quartet to write a piece based on his experience as composer-in-residence at the Buttonwood Psychiatric Unit in New Jersey. Other commissions have come from the Present Music Ensemble, countertenor Ryland Angel, and choreographer Christopher Williams. Current projects include a new collaborative dance opera with Christopher Williams and a one-act chamber opera commissioned by Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco with a libretto by Farnoosh Moshiri. Spears was also recently commissioned by poet Tracy K. Smith to write two new songs for the Rolex Arts Weekend. In 2012 he will begin work on an evening-length opera based on the novel Fellow Travelers in collaboration with writer Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury. His Requiem will be released by New Amsterdam Records in November 2011.
Spears has won multiple prizes from both BMI and ASCAP as well as grants and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers Forum, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Vagn Holmboe Competition. In 1999 he was awarded a First Music Commission to write a piece for the New York Youth Symphony, which was given its premiere at Carnegie Hall. Spears collaborated with musicologist Simon Morrison to realize the original score for Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, which was premiered by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Bard Festival in 2008. He has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. His string quartet (Buttonwood) is published by Project Schott NY (PSNY).
Spears studied composition at the Eastman School of Music, the Yale School of Music, and Princeton University. He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he studied early Danish minimalism and orchestration with composers Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård. More recently he was a participant in American Opera Projects' 2007-2008 Composers and the Voice season.
In addition to his work as a composer, Spears teaches a Freshman Writing Seminar at Princeton called Music and Madness, which explores the popularized link between creativity and mental illness. He lives in Brooklyn.