DOWNLOAD SHORT BIO FOR PROGRAMS
Larry Tuttle writes iconic and optimistic music with a strong sense of story and narrative arc. His music is driven by 21-st Century rhythms and sensibilities, while being rooted with the power of archetypal musical elements.
Larry is the winner of the Pittsburgh Symphony’s H.J. Heinz Company Audience of the Future Composition Competition, with his work CHORALE AND FIDDLE TUNE. His concert overture BY STEAM OR BY DREAM won second prize at the Keuris Composers Competition in The Netherlands, in the category of Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has written multiple commissions for wind ensemble, including ACROSS THE DIVIDE, which was commissioned by legendary director H. Robert Reynolds.
Trained extensively in double bass and piano from an early age, Larry’s youth was saturated with both orchestral music and private instrumental study. He absorbed the orchestral repertoire from the bass sections of youth symphonies, All-City orchestras, school orchestras and music camps (including the National Music Camp in Interlochen, where he played principal bass in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra). His collegiate studies were taken at the University of Washington. Among Larry’s bass mentors were Ron Simon, James Harnett, Ring Warner, Oscar Zimmerman and jazz legend Gary Peacock, who opened Larry’s ears and mind with a revelatory course in ear–training.
After a long and productive journey through the world of rock and pop music and a stint as a recording artist on Warner Brothers Records, Larry eventually became one of the world’s foremost composers and performers of music for the Chapman Stick, a hybrid tapping instrument that combines qualities of the electric guitar, bass and piano. Larry made several recordings on The Stick with his groups FREEWAY PHILHARMONIC and STRING PLANET. Consisting of The Stick, viola, acoustic guitar and drums, FREEWAY PHILHARMONIC played an anything-goes mix of contemporary classical, rock, pop and improvisation. The aggressively hybrid nature of that group directly foreshadowed the orchestral music that Larry is writing today. His solo album of compositions for The Stick, THROUGH THE GATES, is considered to be one of the landmark recordings of that instrument.
Larry is a composing and performing member of CELA (Composers Ensemble of Los Angeles). CELA is a twelve-member composer’s collective dedicated to developing and promoting new music.