SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Los Angeles-based composer Jules Pegram's music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Reno Pops Orchestra, and Symphony in C, among others, and has been recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony–conducted by the composer–at Warner Bros. Studios and 20th Century Fox Studios.

Pegram’s latest film work includes the original score to the feature-length documentary Choral Singing in America: Nurturing the Country’s Soul (2024, Collaborative Films). In July 2021, Pegram could be found leading orchestral sessions at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios, serving as conductor and orchestrator for Sturdivant Adams’ evocative score to Prisoners of Paradise (AMG International Film).

Commissioned by a consortium of 17 American universities and designed as a sweeping musical travelogue through the City of Angels, Pegram’s L.A.tudes for Band was recently recognized as a finalist for the 2023 National Band Association Revelli Award, and his Concerto for Alto Saxophone & Wind Ensemble, written for saxophonist Andrew Harrison, was awarded the Frederick Fennell Prize by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). For more information, please visit www.julespegram.com

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Los Angeles-based composer Jules Pegram (b. 1991) strives to compose music elegant in its construction and meticulously well-crafted, full of shimmering color, boundless energy, and an unbridled lyricism that makes it refreshingly direct. His work has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Reno Pops Orchestra, and Symphony in C, among others, and has been recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony–conducted by the composer–at Warner Bros. Studios and 20th Century Fox Studios.

Pegram’s recent film work includes the original score to the feature-length documentary Choral Singing in America: Nurturing the Country’s Soul (2024, Collaborative Films). In July 2021, Pegram could be found leading orchestral sessions at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios, serving as conductor and orchestrator for Sturdivant Adams’ evocative score to Prisoners of Paradise (AMG International Film). Collaborations with filmmakers date back to Pegram’s formative years scoring shorts at USC and later to work for the Traverse City Film Festival, and his film scoring studies have included participation in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in Los Angeles, the inaugural Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Mentor Program. Pegram received the ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Film & TV Award, presented annually to an outstanding writer who has participated in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop.

Commissioned by a consortium of 17 American universities and designed as a sweeping musical travelogue through the City of Angels, Pegram’s L.A.tudes for Band was recently recognized as a finalist for the 2023 National Band Association Revelli Award​, and his Concerto for Alto Saxophone & Wind Ensemble, written for saxophonist Andrew Harrison, was awarded the Frederick Fennell Prize by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). Pegram’s many other concert works bear the colorful stamp of cinema, from the whirlwind orchestral showpieces Neon Nights and L.A. Glows...to the vivid Shadows of the Studio and Maiden Voyage, inspired by classic Hollywood’s studio system...to Palm Strings, Theatrics, and Higher Ground, a richly scored sixty-minute opera in one act with a libretto by NC-based writer Jim Whiteside that Pegram composed, conducted, and produced in 2018.

Other honors include two ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2019, 2017); the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Band Directors Association’s James E. Croft Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers (2019); selection for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s Conductors/Composers Workshop (2017) and the Underwood New Music Readings (2015); recognition in the Indianapolis Symphony’s Marilyn K. Glick and Symphony in C’s Young Composers competitions (2013); the Sadye J. Moss Endowed Music Composition Prize (2013); the University of Southern California’s Discovery Scholars prize (2013); and the Presser Foundation’s Undergraduate Scholar Award (2012). Pegram has been recognized as an Outstanding Graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music’s Department of Composition.

Classically trained, Pegram received the Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition with a cognate in conducting (2018) and the Master of Music in Composition (2015) from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Evan Chambers, Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Paul Schoenfeld, and Bright Sheng. He received the Bachelor of Music in Composition summa cum laude (2013) from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Oscar nominee Bruce Broughton, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Morten Lauridsen, Erica Muhl, Frank Ticheli, and USC Trojan Marching Band arranger Tony Fox. He has studied conducting with Michael Haithcock, Jerry Blackstone, David Newman, Mark Norman, and Angel Velez, among others, classical piano with Alin Melik-Adamyan, Jeanette Fang, and Louis Nagel, and jazz piano with Ellen Rowe and Yellowjackets keyboardist Russell Ferrante. Aside from composing and conducting, he has served as pianist for the University of Michigan Symphony Band and Contemporary Directions Ensemble. Pegram resides in South Pasadena, California with his partner Adam Konger, music supervisor at MOCEAN entertainment marketing agency. 

For more information, please visit www.julespegram.com