Charles Tarver is an American composer from Sheridan, Wyoming.  Mr. Tarver received all of his early music education in the Wyoming Public School System before beginning private study in high school with Douglas Moore and Gary & Jeannene McKnight.  Mr. Tarver studied music and philosophy at Princeton University, from which he graduated magna cum laude.  Mr. Tarver's composition teachers included Dmitri Tymoczko and Dan Trueman, and his thesis was advised by the American philosopher Dr. Cornel West and the esteemed musicologist Dr. Carolyn Abbate.  During a year at Oxford University, Mr. Tarver studied music theory with Suzannah Clark and clarinet with the principal clarinetist of the London Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Lines.  During this time, Mr. Tarver also founded the Oxford Pops Orchestra to promote contemporary American classical music abroad.

Upon graduation from college, Mr. Tarver began work as a U.S. Diplomat serving tours in Vienna, Austria and Washington, D.C.  While in Vienna, Mr. Tarver studied clarinet with the solo clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Ernst Ottensamer, and composition with Viennese composer Wolfram Wagner.  While in Washington D.C., Mr. Tarver studied piano with Jeffrey Chappell, composition with Maurice Saylor, and Native American Flute with Ron Warren.

Mr. Tarver recently completed his doctorate in composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he had the honor of studying with the late Robert Cogan, a distinguished student of Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger and the author of Sonic Design. Mr. Tarver completed his doctorate under the guidance of composer Michael Gandolfi, a student of Leonard Bernstein.  Mr. Tarver focuses his compositional efforts on all genres and styles of classical music ranging from suites for unaccompanied instruments to large-scale works for symphony orchestra.  As a conductor, Mr. Tarver studied with Ken-David Masur of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and with Erica Washburn and William Drury of NEC.  Mr. Tarver's musicological research focuses on the music of the American West and Polynesia, as well as the roots of early rural blues.

Mr. Tarver is active as a clarinetist, vocalist, and Native American Flute player.  When not composing classical music, Mr. Tarver enjoys writing cowboy, folk, and country music with his Wyoming-based songwriting partner and high school classmate Jascha Herdt.  Mr. Tarver also greatly enjoys creating films to explore ways in which classical music can reach new audiences.

Formerly a Music Tutor at Harvard University's Lowell House, Mr. Tarver now lives and works in Southern California with help from his two best assistants, his sons Alex and Benjamin.

Landscape photography provided by Tim Doolin © 2016.