Dave Grusin
Biography Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
Robert David Grusin (b. 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and pianist. He has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards.
Grusin was born in Littleton, Colorado, to Henri and Rosabelle (née de Poyster) Grusin. His mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist from Riga, Latvia. He studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded his degree in 1956. His teachers included Cecil Effinger and Wayne Scott, pianist, arranger and professor of jazz.
Grusin produced his first single in 1962, Subways Are for Sleeping, and his first film score, for Divorce American Style, in 1967. Other scores followed, including The Graduate (1967), Winning (1969), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Midnight Man (1974), and Three Days of the Condor (1975).
In 1978, he founded GRP Records with his business partner, Larry Rosen, and began to produce some of the first commercial digital recordings. He was the composer for On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), and The Goonies (1985). In 1988, he won the Oscar for best original score, for The Milagro Beanfield War. He composed the musical signatures for the 1984 TriStar Pictures logo and the 1993 Columbia Pictures Television logo. Grusin has a filmography of about 100 titles.
From 2000-11, Grusin concentrated on composing classical and jazz compositions, touring and recording with collaborators, including jazz singer and lyricist Lorraine Feather and guitarist Lee Ritenour. Their album Harlequin won a Grammy Award in 1985. Their classical crossover albums, Two Worlds and Amparo, were nominated for Grammys.
Grusin received honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music in 1988 and University of Colorado, College of Music in 1989.
