Featured Composer: Oliver Glynn

Pianist-Composer Oliver Glynn combines a busy schedule playing for jazz and new music concerts with an ever-growing portfolio that reflects his wide-ranging compositional interests.  Much of his work is fueled by his experience in improvisation. "If Chopin were alive today I think there is a very good chance he would be considered a jazz musician. The work that I am the most proud of is usually a combination of intention mixed with a strong dose of intuitive thought."

Oliver also loves writing for theater and the human voice.  He completed a one-act opera, "Coffee", that the UNCSA Voice Department and School of Filmmaking turned into a film last season.  He’s been working on chamber music set to poetry of Ogden Nash this season, and his choral fantasy "Nighttime Search" has been chosen for performance at the end-of-the-year concert of UNCSA Cantata Singers.

Born and raised in Richmond, VA, Oliver credits his father, John Glynn (a UNCSA alumnus) with being his first and foremost musical mentor. "The French Horn, my father's instrument, has always been a sound in my home. Only recently did I realize the influence that hearing the horn play melodies such as Schubert's "Ave Maria" had on my development."  

His work as a jazz pianist remains at the center of his musical life, as demonstrated by the performance he gave last fall of Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" on his senior recital. Oliver will be pursuing a master's degree in jazz performance once he graduates from UNCSA.

Oliver is currently a fourth-year composition student in the studio of  Dr. Michael S. Rothkopf.

Oliver's work on SoundCloud

To view a score of Oliver's string quartet From Cliff to Crest, click on the image below: