Justin Freer

Biography

Justin Freer (b. 1980, Huntington Beach, Calif.) is an American compose and conductor.

Freer began his formal studies on trumpet, playing in wind ensembles, marching bands and community orchestras. He quickly turned to piano and composition, and composed his first work for wind ensemble at age eleven. Continuing trumpet performance while studying piano and composition, Freer saw multiple wind ensemble, choral and big band performances of his music while still a teenager and gave his professional conducting debut at age sixteen.

Mr. Freer earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music Composition from UCLA, where his principal composition teachers included Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse. In addition, he was mentored by legendary composer/conductor Jerry Goldsmith.

Continually composing for various different mediums, he has written music for world-renowned trumpeters Doc Severinson and Jens Lindemann, and continues to be in demand as a composer and conductor for everything from orchestral literature to chamber music at some of the most well known concert halls, festivals, music clinics and conventions in the world. Major League Soccer called upon Freer to compose and conduct music for the 2011 and 2012 Major League Soccer Championship Cups in Los Angeles, CA. He has served as composer for several independent films and has written motion picture advertising music for some of 20th Century Fox Studios’ biggest campaigns including Avatar, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dragonball Evolution and Aliens in the Attic.

As a conductor Freer has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming seasons will include his debut with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Tokyo Philharmonic and repeat performances with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and others.

In recent seasons his works have been performed by the Musashino Academia Musicae Wind Ensemble, Texas All-State Symphonic Band, the Grand Symphonic Winds and the wind bands of the University of North Texas, Purdue University, Kansas State University, University of North Dakota, University of Illinois, Indiana University, UCLA, St. Cloud State University, and Cal State University, Los Angeles, among many others. His music has also appeared as a subject of discussion at the Oxford Round Table of Scholars and has been performed throughout the world from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.

Freer has been recognized with numerous grants and awards from organizations including ASCAP, BMI, the Society of Composers and Lyricists and the Henry Mancini Estate. He is the Founder and President of CineConcerts, a company dedicated to the preservation and concert presentation of film, TV and media music set to picture with whom he has produced, curated and conducted full length music score performances live with film for such titles as Gladiator, The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and It’s a Wonderful Life. He also spent several years as one of the principal conductors for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy In Concert and is scheduled to conduct the European concert run of Titanic.

Works for Winds

Resources

Justin Freer website - Accessed 5 September 2017
Popejoy, James. "Rio's Convergence." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 748-754. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.