A brief chronology: 

 

Born in 1951, Fort Dodge Iowa. 

Grew up on a farm seven miles south-east of Pocahontas, Iowa. 

 

High school music instructors:  

Richard Kinzler; chorus, voice,  piano. 

Gary Currie; band, doublebass. 

 

Undergraduate Bachelor of Music in voice performance, 

University of Iowa, 1974. 

Vocal study with Wade Raridon and Albert Gammon. 

Studied composition with Richard Hervig, Donald Jenni, 

Peter Tod Lewis, and William Hibbard. 

 

Married Nancy Rexford, January 1975.  

Moved to Northampton, MA. 

 

Master of Arts in Music Composition and Theory,  

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978. 

Studied composition with Robert Stern and Charles Fussell. 

 

Vocal study with John d'Armand and Rodney Gisick. 

Vocal study with Kathleen Spillane. 

 

Gerritt Alexander Haines Turner born, 1981. 

Moved to Danvers, MA, 1987. 

 

Shakuhachi study with Phil Nyokai James (primary 

teacher) Yoshio Kurahashi and James Nyoraku Schlefer. 

 

Many thanks to my teachers: you were all so very 

important to me. 

 

Performances and recordings with Capella Alamire, 

Cantata Singers of Boston, Blue Heron Vocal Ensemble, 

and Church of the Advent Choir. 

 

More thanks to some of the conductors from whom I 

have learned a great deal: special thanks to John Oliver  

and David Hoose. 

 

Member of the New Opera and Musical Theater Initiative 

(NOMTI) since 2003.  Current mmber of the NOMTI 

Advanced Workshop.