The music of Austin-based composer Pierce Gradone has been widely performed throughout the United States and abroad. A strong proponent of new music, he has premiered multiple chamber, orchestral, and solo works for the double bass.  A Florida native, Pierce began playing music at a young age, writing songs and playing in bands, orchestras, and musical theatre companies.  At Florida State University, he studied with Ladislav Kubik, Clifton Callender and Ellen Taafe Zwilich.  In 2008, he received the university’s prestigious Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Award for Holy Thursday, a song for soprano and orchestra. As a graduate student at the University of Texas, he studied with Dan Welcher and was principal bassist for the New Music Ensemble. In 2011, he was awarded Third Prize in the Austin Peay Young Composers competition.  This summer, he will be the resident composer at the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Workshop.

Pierce’s music has been featured in the Florida State University Festival of New Music, Vickie Chow’s Contagious Sounds new music series, the No Extra Notes podcast, the radio show Open Strings, the Artosphere Festival, and the Blanton Museum’s MUSICIRCUS.  He has collaborated with and written for Line Upon Line Percussion, the Aeolus Quartet, Concert Black NYC, the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, trombonist Steven Parker (Second Instrumental Unit), and many others.  Pierce holds degrees from Florida State University (B.M., Composition) and the University of Texas at Austin (M.M., Composition).