Gerald Busby

Gerald Busby (born December 16, 1935) is an American composer. Biography Busby was born in Tyler, Texas, United States. He studied piano as a child, playing with the Houston Symphony when he was 15 years old. He attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied music in college, but once graduated, began working as a traveling salesman. At the age of 40, he had an “epiphany” and began to compose, a direction that surprised him. In 1977, with the assistance of composer Virgil Thomson, Busby moved to the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, where he has written most of his work. Living at the Hotel Chelsea brought him into contact with numerous cultural figures. One of them was dancer Rudolf Nureyev and his then-partner Wallace Potts. Potts gave choreographer Paul Taylor a recording of Busby’s music, which led to Busby writing the score for Taylor’s dance Runes. Regarding his scores for Paul Taylor’s dance Runes and Robert Altman’s film 3 Women, Busby said: “Those two pieces are acknowledged as masterpieces, so that I know they’ll last beyond me. … Not because what I did was a masterpiece, but I was part of it.” In 1985, Busby was diagnosed with HIV, as was his partne