The great American wind composer and conductor Alfred Reed passed away on Saturday at the age of 84.

Reed left a lasting impact on the American music landscape, and was well known in the drum corps activity for compositions including Armenian Dances & Russian Christmas Music. As a teenager, he played with small hotel combos in the Catskill Mountains. His interests shifted from performing to arranging and composition. In 1938, he started working in the Radio Workshop in New York as a staff composer/arranger and assistant conductor. With the onset of World War II, he enlisted and was assigned to the 529th Army Air Corps Band. During his three and a half years of service, he produced nearly 100 compositions and arrangements for band. After his discharge, Reed enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music and studied composition with Vittorio Giannini. In 1953, he enrolled at Baylor University, serving as conductor of the Symphony Orchestra while he earned the Bachelor of Music degree (1955). A year later, he received his Master of Music degree.

From another page:

His Masters thesis was the Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra, which later was to win the Luria Prize. It received its first performance in 1959, and was subsequently published in 1966. During his two years at Baylor, he also became interested in the problems of educational music at all levels, especially in the development of repertoire materials for school bands, orchestras, and choruses. This led, in 1955, to his accepting the post of editor in a major publishing firm in New York.

In 1966 he left this post to join the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Miami, holding a joint appointment in the Theory-Composition and Music Education departments, and to develop the unique (at the time) Music Industry degree program at that institution, of which he became director.

With over 250 published works for Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Chorus, and various smaller chamber music groups, many of which have been on the required performance lists in this country for the past 20 years, Dr. Reed is one of the nation’s most prolific and frequently performed composers.

His work as a guest conductor and clinician has taken him to 49 states, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and South America, and for many years, al least eight of his works have been on the required list of music for all concert bands in Japan, where he is the most frequently performed foreign composer today. He left New York for Miami, Florida, in 1960, where he has made his home ever since.

Until his passing on Saturday, of course. Amazon.com has several good Alfred Reed recordings on this page, but my all-time favorites remain Russian Christmas Music (a piece everyone should hear), Rushmore (his arrangement of America the Beautiful, one that Coach directed just this year), and of course, The Hounds of Spring.

Rest in peace, Dr. Reed, and thank you for music I will remember all my life.