H. Owen Reed
Composer, Author, Conductor

Dr. H. Owen Reed retired in 1976 from Michigan State University as Professor Emeritus.  He was chairman of Music Composition in the School of Music and served as Acting Head in 1957-58.  Born in Odessa, Missouri in 1910, Dr. Reed enrolled in the School of Music at the University of Missouri in 1929 but transferred in 1933 to Louisiana State University.  There he received his Bachelor of Music (1934) and his Master of Music (1936), both in music composition, and a Bachelor of Arts (1937) in French.  In 1937 he enrolled at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester and received his Ph. D. in music composition in 1939.  Dr. Reed's published compositions include a variety of works for orchestra, band, voices, opera, and chamber music, plus eight books on music theory and composition.

In addition to his composition study with Helen Gunderson at Louisiana State University, Dr. Reed studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers, conducting with Paul White, musicology with Howard Gleason and theory with Allen I. McHose.  In the summer of 1947, he studied studied composition with Roy Harris at Colorado Springs. In 1942, at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood), he studied composition with Bohuslav Martinu, and contemporary music with Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and Stanley Chappel.

Dr. Reed spent six months (1948-49) in Mexico composing and studying folk music and returned to Mexico for a month's study in the summer of 1960.  He also continued his study of folk music in the Caribbean in February 1976, the summer of 1977 in Norway, and extensive study of Native American music in New Mexico and Arizona.

He has been a member or officer of a number of regional and national music organizations including the Music Teachers National Association where he served as Chairman of the Theory-Composition Section.  He is a member of ASCAP, The American Music Center, The Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (Honorary Member), and a member of the National Council of the National Association of Composers, USA.  He is also an Orpheus Award member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and recipient of the National Arts Award from Sigma Alpha Iota.

Dr. Reed's first wife, Esther M. Reed, died in Lansing, Michigan in 1981.  Their surviving children are Sara Jo Ferrar of Worthington, Ohio and Carol Ann Wetters of Traverse City, Michigan.  In 1982, Dr. Reed married Mary L. Arwood of Lansing, Michigan.  They now reside in Green Valley, Arizona.

Recent performances:

The Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra featured four H. Owen Reed pieces at the Community Composer Showcase, March 15, 2001.