Originally a Southern California native, Paul Leary attended the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor’s in music composition in 1999. His principle teachers included William Albright, Erik Santos, and Michael Dougherty. His graduate studies brought him to the Cleveland Institute of Music where he received his Masters in Music Composition in May 2002. Paul earned his second Masters in Music from Duke University in 2007 and a PhD in 2011.
Paul’s music has been featured nationally as well as internationally. His saxophone quartet, “I have a Past Life Memory of the War that Blew the Fifth Planet into the Asteroid Belt” — and other stories from AM radio,was a finalist at the International Computer Music Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007, and winner of the Look & Listen call for scores, 2008 and has had over a dozen performances by four different saxophone quartets. His choral work, Dum medium silencium,commissioned by the Duke Verspers Ensemble has been performed in Munich, Prague, and Dresden. His Concerto for Trumpet, Turntables and Orchestra, was commissioned by Liza Grossman and Contemporary Youth Orchestra and released on CD in 2009. As of recently, his electronic music has been featured at the Florida State New Music Festival, the Ball State New Music Festival, Third Practice, The Electronic Acoustic Barn Dance, Eletronic music Midwest, SEAMUS, the Army Band International Saxophone Symposium, The Gardner Museum, Boston, and the Denison New Music Festival. Paul’s music has also appeared in the concert series at Mather Dance Center in Cleveland, Oh, from 2002-6; contributing works for String Quintet, Electronics, Cello and Piano, Clarinet and Piano, and solo Piano.
In addition to composing, Paul is a professional orchestrator and arranger. He has been principal orchestrator of the ASCAP award winning Contemporary Youth Orchestra for eight years, orchestrating over fifty works of jazz, hip-hop, popular, Broadway, and classical music. He has orchestrated and arranged for pop artists Pat Benatar, Graham Nash, Ray Manzarek, Jon Anderson, percussionist Valerie Naranjo, and pianist Michael Garson. His orchestrations have been released on CD and DVD and have been featured internationally on VH1, PBS, and HDNet. They are published by Bachovich Music Publishing. Paul is also an active chorister, singing recently with the Duke University Vespers Ensemble, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham, NC, and Duke’s Collegium Musicum. He has sung professionally with St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio and the North Carolina Symphony.
As an educator, Paul has had teaching experience at all levels. At the college level, he was adjunct faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve in Cleveland Ohio where he taught music theory and technology. At Duke University he has been a graduate teaching assistant for music theory and electronic music. As a graduate teacher at Duke, he has taught music theory and designed a popular music appreciation course titled “The Art of Popular Song: 1990-present." During the 2007-2008 academic year, Mr. Leary was a full-time visiting instructor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Currently, he is adjunct faculty at North Carolina State University.
Full CV available for download here.