Charles Raymond Loring II, known professionally as "Ray Loring", was a classically trained music composer and professor, in Massachusetts.
Education
Born in Illinois to Howard and Rena Loring, they removed thereafter to Georgetown, Master of Arts. He graduated from Perley High School in his home town of Georgetown, Master of Arts. He studied piano with Fred Noonan, the White House pianist to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Career
During his senior year at Yale he was granted the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and used it for his studies at Brandeis University Graduate School of Music. Studying under Seymour Shifrin, Arthur Berger and Harold Shapero. Loring taught music, performed, and conducted at Endicott College from 1980 to 1992.
He then went to freelance music composing full-time, but lectured regularly at Amherst College and Northern Essex Community College (Master of Arts).
He had recently returned to teaching, on the music faculty at Gordon College (Master of Arts). Loring composed his first film score in 1971.
The locally acclaimed short film "Ruby". He continued composing throughout his life.
During the course of his career, Loring composed scores for more than 100 episodes of Public Broadcasting Service/WGBH Boston"s NOVA series, plus the theme music
He contributed music to many other Public Broadcasting Service, Discovery Channel, History Channel episodes. In addition to work with museum installations, historical visitor centers, et cetera throughout the United States. including the Harry Truman Museum, the theater at the National Archives Rotunda, the Museum of the Mississippi, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. In 2004 he was commissioned to provide an arrangement for the Astoria Jazz Band, for inclusion in the 9th Annual Festival of Women in Jazz Composers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, District of Columbia. Additionally, Ray Loring composed and performed for the Essex Chamber Music Players (Andover, Master of Arts).
A recording of Loring"s "June on the Merrimack", which sets to music the words of local abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier, is being prepared by the Essex Chamber Music Players (ECMP. Events to honor Mr.
Loring are planned for fall 2009. Foreign more information about ECMP"s Ray Loring Recording Fund, and to learn about ECMP"s mission "preserving local cultural history through music" contact Michael Finegold at www.essexchambermusicplayers.org.
He died suddenly on a cold, stormy day, near the top of Nubble Peak in New Hampshire despite the heroic rescue efforts of his fellow hikers: see "viewsfromthetop".com. Immediate survivors include his father Howard Loring (d 2012).
1st cousins Eileen Murray of California, Charlotte M. Chapin of Number.
Palm Beach Florida.
Nova (music theme) (53 episodes, 1997–2007) (composer: theme music) (2 episodes, 2006)
Pocahontas Revealed (2007) television episode (music theme)
Saved by the Sun (2007) television episode (music theme)
Kings of Camouflage (2007) television episode (music theme)
First Flower (2007) television episode (music theme)
The Last Great Ape (2007) television episode (music theme)
Nova ScienceNow (music theme) (39 episodes, 2005–2007)
Aging (2007) television episode (music theme)
Maya (2007) television episode (music theme)
Profile: Bonnie Bassler (2007) television episode (music theme)
Space Elevator (2007) television episode (music theme)
1918 Flu (2006) television episode (music theme)
Why the Towers Fell (2002) (television) (composer: additional music)
Composer:
"Nova" (9 episodes, 1998–2006)
The Deadliest Plane Crash (2006) television episode
Saving the National Treasures (2005) television episode
Descent Into the Ice (2004) television episode
Dogs and More Dogs (2004) television episode
Dirty Bomb (2003) television episode
Einstein Revealed (1996) (television)
"Secrets of Lost Empires II" (1996) television series (unknown episodes)
Ruby (1971) Producer.
Membership
He was a member of Scroll and Key.