Gregory Spears

Gregory Spears is an American composer of instrumental and operatic works that blend aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. Among his best known works are the operas Fellow Travelers and Paul’s Case, as well as his Requiem. Early life and education Spears grew up in Virginia. He attended Eastman School of Music, received a master’s degree at Yale University, and earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University. He studied with Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård while a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Career His opera Fellow Travelers, adapted from the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon with a libretto by Greg Pierce, premiered at Cincinnati Opera on June 17, 2016 and has since then been produced across the United States and has garnered many positive reviews. Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times wrote: “Originality in the arts is a vague and overhyped virtue. Few works are completely original. All creative artists borrow from others, both masters they revere and contemporaries they may be in competition with. Still, originality just comes through sometimes, as the composer Gregory Spears demonstrates in his personal, boldly quirky score for the wr