Geoff Stradling

Composer and pianist Geoff Stradling started piano lessons at age six - his mother being his first teacher. By 13 he had run through the piano instructors in his hometown - Bellingham Washington, and began a biweekly trip to Seattle to study at The Cornish School, where coincidentally his maternal grandmother had taught years before.
Passionate about music, Geoff founded a big band as a freshman in high school and wrote for it for four years. By the time he was a sophomore in college he had won a national composition contest sponsored by the National Association of Jazz Educators.
At age twenty, he moved to Europe, and soaked in the European experience - food, wine, melody. Melody! This was so different from America. In his homeland the emphasis was on harmony and rhythm, here melody was king. This would get into his soul and become a part of his life and, a part of his music.
In 1984 Geoff moved to Los Angeles. L.A. brought work in every corner of the music business, and exposure to many styles. He would write feature film scores; Latin music commercials for hispanic TV; compose 300 cues for Entertainment Tonight; arrange and compose for the American Music Awards and spend years as Musical Director for the Golden Globes; play on the controversial and multi platinum selling Ritual de lo Habitual for the rock band Jane's Addiction; perform with Quincy Jones and Mel Torme; record with (and arrange for) Ernestine Anderson on her grammy nominated Blues, Dues & Love News.
Along the way Geoff focused more and more on writing, eventually letting playing go entirely. Composers spend all day locked in a room alone however, and this got old after five years. He needed interaction and the creative outlet of playing again. "Music is meant to be made with and shared with others." It took a couple of years and a new piano, and in 2005, he went back to pursuing the dual career of pianist and composer.
By 2010, he had written a lot of new music for Big Band, but the only way to get it played was to start a band, so at 55 years old he started a big band with some of L.A.'s finest. The StradBand got together weekly for a year before it performed live, and it's been performing and workshopping ever since.