Paul Nordoff (1909-1977) Winter Symphony (1955)
Most famous for his collaboration with C. Robbins in the development of the Nordoff-Robbins system of music therapy in the 1950s and 1960s, Pennsylvania-born Paul Nordoff also composed a number of memorable musical works including the score to Martha Graham's 1939 ballet "Every Soul Is a Circus."
His brief online biography states that Nordoff studied the piano at the Philadelphia Conservatory, receiving a B.M. degree in 1927 and an M.M. degree in 1932. Later he studied with Rubin Goldmark at the Juilliard School and in 1960 he received a Bachelor of Music Therapy from the Combs College of Music in Philadelphia. He then served as head of composition at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1938--1943), a teacher at Michigan State College (1945--1949), and professor of music at Bard College (1948--1959).
Nordoff's Winter Symphony, a Neo-Romantic work from 1955, is probably his best-known work simply because it is his only major composition that has been recorded.
In 1955 the Louisville Orchestra commissioned the work and issued it on its Louisville Orchestra label (LOU 571), Robert Whitney conducting.
