In works that range from
full-length opera ("Orpheus Descending" for Lyric Opera of Chicago) to solo
piano ("Liberating Chemistry"), Saylor has been commissioned and performed
by major orchestras, chamber groups and soloists. The winner of more than 35
awards in his field, he has received honors from the Guggenheim Foundation,
the National Society of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
He has
composed the music for two holiday CDs for the great American soprano Jessye
Norman, and also the music she sang at President Clinton's Second Inaugural,
at the Rheims Cathedral Eclipse Spectacular, and arrangements for the
eveninglength "The Sacred Ellington," which Miss Norman has taken around the world.
Bruce Saylor teaches at Queens College and lives in New York City with his wife the mezzosoprano Constance Beavon and their four daughters.