Education
Grayson studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1962, going on to earn an Master of Arts He attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood on a composition scholarship in 1964. Returning to the United States, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy in composition at University of California, Los Angeles in 1969—only the third person to receive a University of California, Los Angeles music Doctor of Philosophy, after Michael Zearott and Edward Applebaum (Wager 1989)—in the same year joining the faculty of Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he remained until retirement in 2001.
Career
In composition at the University of Chicago in 1963. A Fulbright Scholarship enabled him to study with Henri Pousseur in 1965-1966, in Brussels and at the Cologne Courses for New Music (Stockhausen 1971, 200). Since 2001 he has taught courses in music theory at the Crossroads School, and piano at the Aube Tzerko Piano Institute at the New Roads School, both in Santa Monica, California.
As a pianist, he is best known as an improvisor of classical music, most often with live-electronics.
By the 1980s, he was regarded as one of the best non-jazz improvisers (Shulgold 1985). From 1971 to 1986 he served on the Executive Board of the Monday Evening Concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and frequently appeared as a pianist in concerts on that series.
He has made six recordings of music by other 20th-century composers, including Luigi Dallapiccola, Aurelio de la Vega, Andrew Imbrie, Charles Ives, Leonard Rosenman, and Roy Travis, as well as four recordings of his own compositions. He was also organist at Saint Martin of Tours Church, West Los Angeles until his retirement on May 31, 2009, after having served in that position for 28 years.
Anybody"s Guess, for multiple electronic keyboards
Aurore, for flute, clarinet, harp, piano, violin, and cello
Fantasy on Broadway Boogie Woogie, electronic music with video
Homage to J.S. Bach, for harpsichord, with tape delay
Listen for the Bell, electronic music with video
Meadow Music, for solo piano
Mr.
528, for three disklaviers and three clavinovas (1996)
Office Broadway, electronic music with video
Ostinato, for two synthesizers and a sequencer
Promenade, for two amplified accordions
Rain, for piano, ring modulator, and tape delay
Rocky Road Ripple, electronic music with video
Shoot the Piano Player, computer-controlled pianos (1995).
