The road less traveled carl strommen biography

In a recent interview, Mr. Strommen was asked how he manages to successfully write for so many different settings, as an arranger and as a composer. "My first non-published arrangements were for jazz band - starting in high school.

My first assignments in the publishing world were for arrangements of "pop" choral music and what was called “easy” jazz band - for Alfred Publishing when they were still on Long Island. Arranging assignments for wind band followed for Alfred and Warner Bros.

The road less traveled carl strommen biography

String writing came a bit later (I took violin lessons) - One of my favorite assignments was for the the wind band setting of Riverdance - still canʼt shake the “6/8” pulse - very infectious. And one of my most recent memorable string writing projects was for the Lincoln Center premier of Russell Robinsonʼs chorus with orchestra work, De Profundis.

In both cases, I acted as an orchestrator (maintaining the integrity of the music) rather than as an arranger where one can take some liberties with h