Alfred Bartles

Alfred Howell Bartles (November 10, 1930 – December 28, 2006) was an American composer and musician. He played the cello and piano and he is best known for Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble, a work that has been described as pioneering of the crossover between jazz and classical music. Bartles grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, He moved back to Nashville in 1997, where he spent the remainder of his career. At the University of Mississippi, he became interested in the cello as an instrument to take up despite not knowing much about it. Because of his musical past and devotion towards it, the learning curve was easier. Also while there he met Claus Adam, a cellist for the Juilliard String Quartet who would later become his mentor. At the University of Mississippi he met a piano student Martha Jean Smith. They married January 31, 1954, in the middle of their graduate studies at Ohio University (Athens Ohio). It was at Ohio University where Bartles studied composition with Karl Ahrendt and Roy Harris. Bartles received his master’s degree in composition from Ohio University in 1954. Alfred and Martha moved to New York City later that year where Bartles studied music theory wi