Randall Woolf (b. 1959)

“As if Beethoven had taken a temp job as James Brown’s arranger” Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle.

Woolf studied composition privately with David Del Tredici, Joseph Maneri, and at Harvard, where he earned a Ph.D. He is a member of the Common Sense Composers Collective, and was the Composer/Mentor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. In 1997 he composed a new ballet of “Where the Wild Things Are”, in collaboration with Maurice Sendak and Septime Webre. He has created 4 pieces for video and live instruments with directors Mary Harron (director of “American Psycho”) and John C. Walsh. He works frequently with John Cale, notably on his score to “American Psycho”. He has arranged over 40 of Cale’s songs for orchestra, including the entire "Paris 1919" album and "Music For A New Society". His works have been performed by Kathleen Supové, Jennifer Choi, Timothy Fain, Mary Rowell, Todd Reynolds, Ethel, conductor and flutist Ransom Wilson, Tara O’Connor, Lindsey Goodman, Le Train Bleu, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, TURNmusic, Fulcrum Point, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Righteous Girls, Sonic Generator, American Composers Orchestra, NakedEye Ensemble, Seattle Symphony, West Michigan Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic and other.

Woolf was the composer/mentor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He taught professional musicians from styles other than Western classical how to write for the orchestra. He has taught harmony and counterpoint privately for may years using the legendary Schoenberg text "Theory Of Harmony. Woolf was fortunate to study this with Joseph Maneri, who had learned the material from conductor Josef Schmid, a student of Berg. It's a rigorous course that usually takes 1-3 years to complete, and is exhaustive and fascinating.