Biography

Roger Bourland (born December 13, 1952) is an American composer, publisher, blogger, and Professor-Emeritus of Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Bourland received a Bachelor of Music in Music Theory and Composition (1976) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, studying with Leslie Thimmig and Randall Snyder; a Master of Music in Music Composition (1978) from the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with William Thomas McKinley and Donald Martino; and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Music Composition from Harvard University, studying with Randall Thompson, Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner.

Bourland studied at Tanglewood with Gunther Schuller and was awarded the Koussevitzky Prize in Composition (1978). Other awards include the John Knowles Paine Fellowship (Harvard), two ASCAP Grants to Young Composers, numerous Meet the Composers grants, and was a co-founder of the Boston-based consortium "Composers in Red Sneakers." Bourland has composed over one hundred fifty works for all media: film, solo, instrumental, chamber, vocal and choral music, electro-acoustic music, and music for orchestra, wind ensemble, and other large ensembles.

From 1983 to 2013, Bourland taught composition, music theory, analysis, orchestration, electro-acoustic composition, and other classes and seminars in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He was awarded the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award for 2005-6, and served as Chair of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Department of Music from 2007 to 2011. Professor Bourland retired from UCLA in 2013 and moved to Northern California to devote his time to composition.