The Endicott Players
of Boston, Pittsburgh, and Tucson

Cantor Songs - Composer and Poet Bios

Dr. Robert Gross received his DMA in music composition at University of Southern California where he also received a graduate certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television, and was the first person to complete two graduate level programs in music at USC simultaneously. He also received an MA in Music for Film, Television and Theatre from the University of Bristol in England; an MM in Music Composition from Rice University; and a BM in Music Composition from Oberlin Conservatory. He has taught graduate and undergraduate level music theory at Rice University, and is currently a graduate student in music therapy at Texas Woman’s University. He was half of Blind Labyrinth with the late Kenneth Downey, an experimental electroacoustic music duo, whose CD Blasted Light was released on the Beauport Classical label in 2014. He has presented papers at the national Society for Music Theory conference, the Texas Society for Music Theory Conference, the West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis, and both national and regional chapters of Society of Composers, Inc. His post-tonal analyses have been published in Perspectives of New Music and Journal of Schenkerian Studies, and his music therapy analyses published in Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy. Awards and honors include winner of University of Georgia Arch Composition Award for Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments; special recognition award, First Music Competition, New York Youth Symphony; winner of triannual Inter-American Music Awards Composition Competition, with publication of winning piece by C. F. Peters; twice Margaret Jory Grant from American Music Center; ASCAP Grants to Young Composers Honorable Mention; orchestra work Halcyon Nights chosen for Whitaker New Music Readings by American Composers Orchestra; twice ASCAP Victor Herbert Award winner; twice ASCAP Grants to Young Composers Finalist.

Jeremy Cantor’s poems have appeared in ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, published in conjunction with Oxford University Press), Ithaca Lit, The Naugatuck River Review, Glassworks, Prelude, The Bicycle Review, Pirene's Fountain, Poetalk, and other journals. “Tearing Out the Blue Girls” was reprinted in Canary. Poems recently anthologized have been “Teaching by Example” in Connoisseurs of Suffering: Poetry for The Journey to Meaning (University Professors’ Press), “Election Results, by State” and “Election Results, by County” in On Writing in a Dark Time (Kelson Books), and “Lengthwise,” in Beer, Wine and Spirits (World Enough Writers).

He was a semi-finalist in the competition for the Dartmouth Poet in Residence at The Frost Place, a museum and nonprofit educational center for poetry located at Robert Frost's former home in Franconia, New Hampshire, and was a finalist for the Lascaux Prize in Poetry (for both his book Wisteria from Seed and for the poem “Her Husband Considers the Words of Picasso”). His poem "The Nietzsche Contrapositive," was awarded first prize in the Grey Sparrow Journal's Poetry and Flash Competition (judges: Mandi Casolo, Doug Holder, and Townsend Walker) and appeared in Grey Sparrow's annual, Snow Jewel.

Mr. Cantor’s debut collection, Wisteria From Seed, with a foreword by Michael Manning, was published in 2015 by Kelsey Books. Mr. Manning has said of his work, “His erudition is not worn, but is subdued, enticingly veiled, and that very subduction becomes an effective, almost signatory characteristic of his poetry. Things emerge from Jeremy’s work, their meaning disguised in the plain dress of moment-to-moment experience. He’s mastered the stealth epiphany.”

In Mr. Cantor’s own words: “I began writing shortly before retiring from a career in laboratory chemistry. I have made and tested engine oil additives, detergents and pharmaceuticals, driven a forklift, worked in a full-body acid-proof hazmat suit, tried to keep my fingers working in a walk-in freezer at -40°F and worked behind radiation shielding. I prefer writing.”

He is currently working on his second volume of poetry.