photo: Lancia E. Smith

J.A.C. Redford is a composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor of concert, chamber and choral music, film, television and theater scores, and music for recordings. 

Artists and ensembles that have performed his work include: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Paul Barnes, Joshua Bell, Liona Boyd, Cantus, Chicago Symphony, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, Debussy Trio, Israel Philharmonic, Kansas City Chorale, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Anne Akiko Meyers, Millennium Consort Singers, New York Philharmonic, Phoenix Chorale, Staatskapelle Dresden, St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Chamber Artists and Utah Symphony.

His music has been featured on programs at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Lincoln Center in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and London’s Royal Albert Hall. He composed the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission for the American Choral Directors Association 2017 National Conference in Minneapolis, MN.

Redford has written the scores for more than three dozen feature films, TV movies or miniseries, including The Trip to Bountiful, One Night with the King, What the Deaf Man Heard, Mama Flora’s Family and Disney’s Oliver & Company, Newsies and The Mighty Ducks II and III. He has composed the music for nearly 500 episodes of series television, including multiple seasons of Coach and St. Elsewhere (for which he received two Emmy® nominations).

His incidental music has been heard in theatrical productions at the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles and South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California, as well as in the American Playhouse series on PBS. Two of his musical comedies are published by Dramatic Publishing and performed frequently across North America.

Collaborating with other artists, Redford has orchestrated, arranged or conducted for Academy Award®-winning composers Terence Blanchard, James Horner, Alan Menken, Randy Newman, Rachel Portman and John Williams, as well as for Danny Elfman, Simon Franglen, Mark Isham, Thomas Newman, Marc Shaiman, and Cirque du Soleil’s Benoit Jutras, on projects including The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Perfect Storm, WALL-E, Avatar, Skyfall, Bridge of Spies, 1917 and most recently Avatar: The Way of Water, A Man Called Otto and Elemental. He orchestrated and conducted Adele’s Oscar-winning title song for Skyfall, wrote arrangements for Joshua Bell’s Voice of the Violin, At Home with Friends, Musical Gifts and The Classical Collection recordings as well as Anne Akiko Meyers’ Serenade: The Love Album, and has written for and recorded with other Grammy Award®-winning artists Steven Curtis Chapman, Bonnie Raitt and Sting.

He has produced, arranged, and conducted music for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and served as a consultant for the Sundance Film Institute, a teacher in the Artists-in-Schools program for the National Endowment for the Arts, a guest lecturer at USC and UCLA, and on the Music Branch Executive Committees for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Redford’s music is published by Hal Leonard, G. Schirmer, Roger Dean, Mark Foster, Fred Bock, Fatrock Ink and Plough Down Sillion Music. He is the author of Welcome All Wonders: A Composer’s Journey, published by Baker Books. His many recordings include ten collections of his concert, chamber and choral music, All Shall Be Well, The Alphabet of Revelation, Confessiones, Dappled Things, Eternity Shut in a Span, Evening Wind, The Growing Season, Inside Passage, Let Beauty Be Our Memorial and Waltzing with Shadows.

Albums

Love Bade Me Welcome

Release Date: January 10, 2025
Catalog Number: NV6695
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
LOVE BADE ME WELCOME is a collection of choral music from composer J.A.C. Redford exploring spirituality, love, and the human experience. Blending traditional forms with contemporary harmonies and time-honored texts, Redford sets the poetry of Shakespeare, Gerard Manley Hopkins, George Herbert, and more. By employing distinctive gestures and a range of vocal timbres, the composer offers sensitive musical interpretations of each poem, from the serene resonance of The Singing Bowl to the Old Testament drama of Who Hears the Ocean Roaring in a Tree. In giving voice to these humanistic texts, LOVE BADE ME WELCOME is a compelling invitation to self-reflection.