“Nolan Gasser is a remarkably gifted composer, pianist, and arranger; he is a mass of music: classical, jazz, rock, blues… he never fails to blow my mind.”

Joel Selvin, Senior Music Critic, San Francisco Chronicle

Nolan Gasser is a critically acclaimed composer, pianist, and musicologist – most notably, the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project. His original works have been performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, La Salle Pleyel (Paris), and the Rose Bowl (Pasadena), among many others. His currents projects include an opera, The Secret Garden, commissioned by San Francisco Opera (for 2013), a musical, Benny and Joon, in partnership with H2H Productions and MGM On Stage, and a book on the interrelation of music and science, being handled by famed literary agent John Brockman.

Among recent composition triumphs, his Cosmic Reflection: A Narrated Symphony – the second commission associated with NASA’s Fermi mission (depicting the entire history of the Universe) received its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.; his World Concerto for Cello and Orchestra received its premiere in Oakland and San Francisco in performances by famed Israeli cellist Maya Beiser, and a trio of international soloists on the erhu, sarangi, and oud, along with the Oakland Symphony under Maestro Michael Morgan; the complete four-movement symphonic oratorio, American Festivals, was performed at IMG Artists’ 2008 Festival del sole in Napa Valley; his GLAST Prelude, written for the 2008 launch of NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope – recorded by the American Brass Quintet, and featuring video by NASA Goddard – became an Internet sensation, with over 150,000 views on YouTube.

In May 2010, Cosmic Reflection was professionally recorded by the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop, and is currently being accompanied by a super high-resolution HDTV video by esteemed documentary film director David Kaplan; major release details forthcoming. Other upcoming projects include an orchestral overture commissioned by Maestro Bruno Ferrandis and the Santa Rosa Symphony to mark the opening of the Green Music Center in 2012; and several chamber music commissions, etc.

Outside of composition, Dr. Gasser is the chief musical architect of the Music Genome Project, the musical technology behind Pandora Radio – now with over 80 million subscribers.  He is also the Artistic Director of Classical Archives, the largest classical music website on the Internet. Dr. Gasser received his Ph.D. in Musicology from Stanford University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor in Medieval–Renaissance Music History. As a pianist, Dr. Gasser performs and records as a soloist, with his own jazz quartet, and with such marquee artist as Steve Miller. He studied composition in Paris (and Fontainebleau) with Betsy Jolas, Gilbert Amy, and Tristan Murail; at NYU with Todd Brief and Menachem Zur; and at CSU, Northridge with Aurelio de la Vega. He lives with his wife and two children in Petaluma, CA.

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