profile on Rayner Brown - composer

Rayner Brown was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on February 23, 1912 and died in 1999. Since 1926 he had resided in southern California. He was a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he earned a B.Mus. degree in organ and a M.Mus. degree in composition.

For fifty-five years he was a church organist. As a member of the American Guild of Organists, he served as Dean of the Los Angeles Chapter from 1961 to 1963 and, subsequently, as a State Chairman.

He has written over two hundred compositions, which are performed throughout the United States and in Europe. He was the recipient of numerous commissions, Ford Foundation grants, and, for the past fifteen years, annual ASCAP awards for outstanding contributions to American music.

Rayner Brown was granted Professor Emeritus of Biola University, where he taught for thirty years. Since retirement in 1977 as a teacher and as a performer, he was able to devote much of his time to composition.
- Sigma Alpha Iota © 2002

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