Music from the Desert

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P:My Score:Nelle D O'Neill

Nelle D O'Neill

Music from the Desert

JOHN O'NEILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MUSIC FOR STRING ORCHESTRA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ John O'Neill (1932-2022) John was a passionate composer of music for young people and especially young string players. His goal was to write music that "is playable, fun, sometimes a little serious, and well received by performers and audien...show more JOHN O'NEILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MUSIC FOR STRING ORCHESTRA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ John O'Neill (1932-2022) John was a passionate composer of music for young people and especially young string players. His goal was to write music that "is playable, fun, sometimes a little serious, and well received by performers and audience alike". A native of 'upstate' New York, he was born in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region south of Rochester, graduated from Red Jacket Central School in Manchester and received degrees in music theory and composition from Ithaca College and The Eastman School of Music where he studied with Warren Benson, Bernard Rogers, Kent Kennan and Wayne Barlow. He taught various aspects of music at the elementary, secondary, community college and university level for over thirty-five years and conducted community and semi-professional orchestras in New York State and the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 1982. More recently, he was a guest conductor of the Reno Philharmonic in performances of several of his compositions. He was a yearly recipient of an ASCAPlus Award since 1994 and has scores in the catalogs of LudwigMasters, FJH, Imagine Music Publishers, Grand Mesa, TRN, Alfred, Belwin, Belwin-Mills, Kendor, Warner Bros. and Bourne. Nine of his scores have received the J. W. Pepper, "Editor's Choice" award since 2007. He has had considerable success with string orchestra arrangements of the 'classics' which he endeavored to make sound as if they were written by the original composer. His publications are now in the music libraries of middle schools, high schools and colleges throughout the United States and Canada. In 2014, he was awarded first place in the Reno Pops', "Composer's Night" competition for his score, "Mambo for Mike". With his wife Nelle (an accomplished violin maker), he was a founding director(1992) of the Carson Valley Violin School, Carson Valley Sinfonia and Carson Valley Violins, the only full-service string shop between Reno and Las Vegas. There are over 60 publications of John's music for string orchestra that may be seen/heard at: jwpepper.com (Search: John O'Neill). Please contact Mike O'Neill at [email protected] for information or questions. show less