Very sad news

Grand Rapids has just lost another brilliant musician to cancer. Greg Ballard passed away on Saturday. He was 53. Here is his bio:

Gregory Ballard - Ballard has a Bachelor of Music with Distinction (Composition; Piano) from the University of Michigan (1976 and did graduate studies (Masters Degree Candidate) at the University of Michigan. He studied piano with Robert Ricci, Phyllis Rapperport (Western Michigan University), Brenda Key, Louis Nagel (UM). He has received performance and composition grants from National Endowment for the Arts (Composer-in-Residence), New England Foundation for the Arts, Bank of Boston, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Expert-in-Residence), San Francisco Community Music Center, Colorado College, Michigan Arts Council.

He has been commissioned by numerous choreographers and dance companies, including Bill Evans, Lucas Hoving, Brenda Way [ODC/San Francisco], Wendy Rogers (choreographer for George Lucas' "Star Wars"), Danza Una (San Jose, Costa Rica), San Francisco Community Music Center [Symphony No.1, Piano Concerto No.2], Current and Modern Consort [co-founded by Ballard] (Ann Arbor, MI), Battle Creek (MI) Youth Orchestra Junior Strings [Three Fantasias for Piano & String Orchestra], San Francisco Saxophone Quartet [Continental Dances], The Schubert Male Chorus of Grand Rapids [kol haruach (Voice of the Wind)]. Continental Dances was a commission work from Gregory Ballard by the SFSQ and will be a highlight of tonight’s program.

Major performances of his music have been at Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Carnegie Recital Hall, Joyce Theatre and Midtown Y (New York City), Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, Yale University, Wesleyan University (Connecticut), Colorado College, University of Michigan, Michigan State University (Gunther Schuller, cond.), Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, Royce Auditorium (Grand Rapids, MI) Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Old First Church Concerts (San Francisco), throughout the San Francisco Bay Area (Mills College, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Santa Cruz, New Performance Gallery), and internationally in Berlin, Costa Rica and Cyprus.

I had just started to get to know Greg. We had spoken briefly about performing together. He was planning to write music for an instrumental rock ensemble. Given his credentials and talent, it would have been amazing. The world is a little worse today than it was before.