Alfred Reed

Alfred Reed is one of those composers who quietly shaped how millions of people experience live music without ever becoming a household name — and honestly, that's kind of beautiful. Born in New York City in 1921 and trained at Baylor University, he spent decades writing for concert band with a neoclassical sensibility that felt both accessible and genuinely substantive. Armenian Dances is an absolute masterpiece of the form — rich, dramatic, emotionally layered — and Russian Christmas Music has become a holiday staple for school and university bands worldwide. The man produced over two hundred published works, which is a staggering output for any composer. He passed in 2005, but his music lives on in rehearsal halls and concert stages every single year, played by students who may never know his name but feel his craft in their bones. That kind of quiet immortality is something most artists can only dream about.

Name (English)

Alfred Reed

Name (Japanese)

アルフレッド・リード

Reading

あるふれっど・りーど

Born

January 25, 1921 – September 17, 2005

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Rooster

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Occupation

conductor / composer / bandmaster / music arranger / bandleader

University

Baylor University

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89

Tags

• New York
• conductor
• composer
• bandmaster

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.