Tony Award-Nominated Composer Gary William Friedman Releases Newest Classical Album Journeys On 150 Music Label, June 5, 2026

The versatile American composer Gary William Friedman, best known for his groundbreaking score for the Tony-nominated, OBIE Award-winning musical The Me Nobody Knows, is releasing his newest classical album Journeys, on the 150 Music label, June 5, 2026. The recording is comprised of three of his works: “Journeys,” a piano concerto with soloist Tanya Gabrielian (recorded September 8, 2025); “Palimpsest,” a string quartet (October 29, 2025); and “Butterfly Cantata,” (February 11, 2025) a chamber orchestral work based on poems written by young people imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp. The full program follows:

 

 

The recording will be available on CD and all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. For more information, please visit 150 Music’s website and composer Gary William Friedman’s website.

 

 

Any lover of serious contemporary music should be pleased with Friedman… there’s much to delight the ear, and quite a bit to challenge the mind as well."
                                              

-- Mark Thomas Ketterson, Concertonet

 

American composer Gary William Friedman has led a storied musical life, bridging the genres of classical, jazz, film, television, ballet, opera, and theatre. Perhaps best known for the 1970 groundbreaking musical The Me Nobody Knows, which received OBIE and DRAMA DESK Awards for best musical and five TONY nominations, he has never contented himself to writing in one field; his extraordinary versatility has allowed him to be equally respected as a classical artist and as a popular and commercially viable composer.

 

Journeys marks the second album of classical works recorded by Friedman released on the 150 Music label. His previous release was Colloquy, in 2008. Friedman’s last classical album, Colloquy, a selection of symphonic works which was released in 2008 on the 150 Music label, received glowing critical reviews. “Friedman is a composer whose forays into musical theatre and liturgical works bleed into his ‘contemporary classical,’” wrote Kraig Lamper in the American Record Guide. “It fails to hinder him and, instead, fleshes out his efforts…” And in Fanfare Magazine, Robert Schulslaper echoed this idea: “Gary William Friedman impresses as a composer who has mastered his craft… his music successfully combines accessibility with artistic integrity, lyricism with abstraction, and abundant heart with refined design.”

 

Other recently recorded classical works include “Reflections”, a chamber work performed by the Palisades Virtuosi on Albany Records New American Masters, Volume 6. His orchestral, operatic and dance works have been commissioned and performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Lancaster Music Festival, the Columbus Symphony and The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho.

 

EARLY LIFE

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Gary William Friedman was first exposed to music from hearing his mother sing Yiddish chestnuts on local radio. During his teenage years, he was influenced by Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, and Alban Berg, but also curious about the pioneering jazz of Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker, and Tito Puente. He learned to play saxophone, clarinet, and flute and worked in local jazz groups as well as in the show bands of the Catskill Mountain resorts. While attending Brooklyn College, Friedman studied composition privately with Hall Overton.  He received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and continued to study composition privately for four years with Jan Meyerowitz. After completing his post-graduate studies in education at Brooklyn College, he worked as a New York City licensed teacher, in various public schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He enrolled at Columbia University to study electronic music composition with Vladimir Ussachevsky, at the Columbia-Princeton Laboratory. From there he embarked on an adventurous path of performing, arranging, and writing music for decades to come. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Brooklyn College in 2024.

 

OPERAS

Friedman has written three operas: “Mordecai,” (libretto by Robert Reinhold) premiered in concert at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City in 1979; “Waning Powers” (libretto by Gerald Walker), premiered in concert, January 14, 1986, at the Vineyard Theater in New York City, and “Teddy,” (libretto by Herb Schapiro), which was developed in collaboration with and performed in concert in 2002 by Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York City.

 

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Symphonic works include “Haskalah,” which premiered with the Columbus Symphony (1984), and “Accordion Samba,” commissioned by The American Accordionists' Association and premiered December 9, 2005, at Elebash Recital Hall in New York City. In 2010 he was invited, as "Maestro of the Moment." to conduct an evening of his works, with the Davenport Pops Orchestra, at Yale University. “Ligeia,” the first movement of a triptych, a chamber work inspired by the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe, had its world premiere with the Pit Stop Players at The DiMenna Center for the Arts in NYC, October 30, 2011.

 

The two subsequent movements, “The Raven” and “A Dream Within a Dream,” were premiered by the Pit Stop Players in 2015 and 2016.

 

BALLETS

Friedman has scored several ballets, including “The Pied Piper,” choreographed by Mercedes Ellington, which was commissioned and performed by Tales and Scales. It premiered at the Lancaster Music Festival, July 1994, and was subsequently presented by the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, March 12, 1995.

 

His ballet “Puss N' Boots” (1998), choreographed by Melinda Baker, was commissioned and conducted by Gary Sheldon for the Lancaster Music Festival. It was subsequently performed at the Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho in August 2008.

 

LITURGICAL WORKS

“Celebration,” a contemporary setting of the traditional Jewish Friday Night Hebrew Service, initially commissioned by Roger Stevens for The Kennedy Center (1971), had its premiere, October 19, 1973, at Temple Israel of the City of New York. “Song of Songs,” a liturgical work scored for cantor, choir and orchestra, was commissioned and performed in 1988, by Cantor Nate Lam, at Stephen Wise Synagogue, Los Angeles, CA, and “An American S'Lichot,” commissioned and performed by Cantor Jack Chomsky in 1983 at Congregation Tifereth Israel, Columbus, OH. “An American S'Lichot” continues to receive performances on the S'lichot holy day, at synagogues throughout the United States. Notable performances include 2014 at the Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C., where Friedman conducted Cantors Mikhail Manevich and Susan Bortnick.

 

MUSICALS

Friedman's musicals include Taking My Turn, winner of the Outer Critic's Circle Award in 1983, featuring a cast that included Margaret Whiting, Marni Nixon, and Cissy Houston. It was subsequently presented on PBS Television's Great Performance Series. The Last Supper, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's completion of the famous mural, premiered Off-Broadway at St. Luke's Theater in 2000. It has been performed in church and community theatres around the country annually.

 

FILM

Film scores include "Full Moon High" (Feature, 1981), starring Alan and Adam Arkin, "Who Gets the Friends" (T.V., 1988), starring Luci Arnaz and Jill Clayburgh, and "Bump in the Night" (T.V., 1991), starring Christopher Reeve. In 1975 Friedman served as Music Director for television's "The Electric Company,” for which he wrote over sixty songs, including the popular "Spider Man Theme Song".

 

THEATRE

Another facet of Friedman’s distinguished career took shape in the 1960s, when he allied himself with Ellen Stewart’s legendary La Mama Theatre and composing numerous scores for plays by Paul Foster, Tom Eyen, and Jean-Claude van Itallie, among others. With the 1971 Broadway triumph of The Me Nobody Knows, he experienced international success.  The musical went on to be performed throughout the world, in cities such as Hamburg, London, Paris and Johannesburg. Two songs from the show; "Light Sings" recorded by the Fifth Dimension, and "This World" recorded by the Staples Singers, became top 'pop singles'. In 1980, the show was produced as a 'live' special for a “Showtime” television presentation. It was introduced and hosted by James Earl Jones. The musical continues to be performed in stock and amateur venues.

 

COLLABORATION WITH STEVIE HOLLAND

From 2000 to the present, Friedman has co-produced, composed original material, and created the arrangements for several internationally acclaimed jazz recordings by his wife, vocalist and lyricist, Stevie Holland. Their album, Before Love Has Gone (150 Music), was chosen by USA Today as a Top Critic’s Pick of The Year, 2008.

 

‍Together Friedman and Holland created the one-woman musical Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter, for which Friedman also wrote the arrangements and original music. The work had its Off-Broadway premiere in 2013 at the York Theatre, starring Holland and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr. Love, Linda continues to be performed across the globe. It was filmed in 2021, earning awards at independent festivals and is streaming on Amazon Prime / BroadwayHD.

 

 

 

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

 

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