Biography
Raymond Wojcik (b.1957)
"Raymond Wojcik is an American-born composer with extraordinary lyrical gifts. His music holds at its core the song or the melody or the cogent, well-defined lyric.....I treasure music like this"
--Cook, American Record Guide, Jan/Feb 2009
His recent activities as a composer have included a three-year position as composer-in-residence at the Cape May Music Festival, the release of two CD's “Akin To Fire” and "Pictures and Stories" on Albany Records of his orchestral and chamber music recorded with Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Rep.) and Rzesnow Philharmonic (Poland). Commissions have been from The Palisades Virtuosi, Duo Fresco, The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, the New Jersey Youth Symphony, The South Hampton Chamber Music Society and The Conductors Institute at Bard. Performances of his works have been by the Grand Rapids Symphony, Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Colonial Symphony, NJ Youth Symphony, Bass School of Music Symphony, Memphis Youth Symphony, Amadeus Orchestra, and Southampton Chamber Music Society.
As a conductor he served as music director of the Garden State Philharmonic (1990-2000) and the Brunswick Symphony (1988-1990). He has served as music director and conductor of the Garden State Philharmonic, in which post he distinguished himself through innovative programming, award-winning educational programs and critically acclaimed performances. He has collaborated with celebrated soloists including Lang Lang, Claude Frank, Maria Bachmann, David Finckel, Charles Neidich, and Eugenia Zukerman, Additionally Mr. Wojcik has led the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Orchestra (U.K.), Rutgers Summerfest Orchestra, The Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), The New Amsterdam Symphony, The New Jersey All-State Orchestra and many festival, theater and ballet orchestras.
Committed to cultivating classical music audiences, Wojcik provided the pre-concert Insight lectures for the International Orchestra Series at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ from 2000- 2009. His educational projects for young students have received numerous foundation grants.
He holds a BM from the Manhattan School of Music, and an MA from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. His composition studies were with David Schiff and Donald Keats, and horn with Clarendon van Norman and Martin Smith. Conducting studies have been with George Manahan, Michael Charry and Harold Farberman. Additional studies were at Juiliard, The Aspen School of Music and the Conductors Institute at Bard. He has been chosen for conducting masterclasses with Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin and Pierre Boulez Wojcik has received grants and fellowships from The Argosy Foundation Fund for Contemporary Music, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Westfield Coalition for the Arts, and the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation.