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Biography of J. A. C. Redford
J.A.C. Redford was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1953. Composing music in the film and television industries for nearly 20 years, he has written the scores for the feature films Bye Bye Love, Heavyweights, D2: The Mighty Ducks, The Trip to Bountiful, and Extremities, as well as the dramatic underscores for Walt Disney Pictures' film musicals Oliver and Company and Newsies. His television movie credits include "Is There Life Out There?," "One More Mountain," "And Then There Was One," "Conagher," "Alex: The Life of a Child," and the mini-series "Naomi and Wynonna"; "Love Can Build a Bridge," and "The Key to Rebecca." He has composed the scores for more than 400 episodes of series television, including six-and-a-half seasons of "Coach" and six seasons of "St. Elsewhere" (for which he received Emmy® nominations in 1984 and 1985). He also worked on the score for A Kid in King Arthur's Court. As a conductor, Redford has led orchestras in recording the scores for A Pyromaniac's Love Story, Black Beauty, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Joy Luck Club, Heart and Souls, Benny and Joon, Billy Bathgate, and The Little Mermaid.
Active also in the theater, Redford composed the incidental music for productions of Chekhov's The Seagull, Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit, Lyle Kessler's Orphans, and Harold Pinter's Betrayal, all at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as Sam Shepard's Buried Child at the South Coast Repertory Theatre and David Birney's adaptation of Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve at the Plaza Theatre in Dallas, a production broadcast as part of the "American Playhouse" series on PBS. Two of his musical comedies are published by Anchorage Press and performed frequently throughout the United States and Canada.
Concurrently, Redford maintains a career composing concert and chamber music. His principal works include: "Welcome All Wonders" (a five-movement Christmas celebration for chorus and orchestra) and "Shepherd Story" (for chorus and orchestra), both commissioned and recorded by the Utah Chamber Artists; "In Dulci Jubilo" (a suite of Christmas carols for brass quintet), commissioned and recorded by the Philadelphia Brass; "The Ancient of Days" (a dramatic music narrative for brass quintet, organ, percussion, and speaker), commissioned and premiered by the Westminster Brass; "Water Walker" (a trio for flute, harp, and viola), commissioned through the Pacific Composer's Forum and premiered by the Debussy Trio; and "A Paschal Feast" (an Easter choral symphony), commissioned and premiered by the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society. Other works include "The Growing Season" (for strings), "Inside Passage" (for solo trombone choir and percussion), "Five Songs for Flute and French Horn" (an unaccompanied duo recorded for Crystal Records), "Dream Dances" (a duo for violin and harp), "October Overtures" (a divertimento for orchestra), and "Five Sonnets" (a song cycle based on poems by e. e. cummings). Redford's ballet for children, "Clementina's Cactus," was premiered at the Kennedy Center as part of the 1984 Imagination Celebration (National Festival of Children's Art). His Easter choral anthem, "Christ Is Alive," was presented in 1992 at the Royal Albert Hall in London by the All Souls Orchestra and Choir.
Redford composed and conducted the orchestral "Prologue" for Steven Curtis Chapman's 1993 Grammy Award®-winning album, "The Great Adventure." He has served as a music consultant for the Sundance Film Institute and a teacher in the Artists-in-School program for the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently resides in Southern California with his wife and four children.