May 19, 2008 (Vol. 7, No. 9)

Grad Student Also a Multifaceted Musician

Gary Pozner, who's working on his master's in music education at Lehman, composed the original music for the 2007 Peabody Award-winning show on PBS, Silence of the Bees. His work on the PBS special, however, is only one of Pozner's more recent projects in a successful twenty-five-year career that has spanned performing, composing, producing, and teaching.

As the owner and chief producer of Whirled Music, Pozner has dozens of film scores to his credit, including Russia: Land of the Tsars (2004 Emmy nominee), Toumani Letu (Best Short Documentary Film, 2006 NY AIDS Film Festival), and Gotti. He also has written music for television, working with HBO, Cinemax, ESPN, Court TV, National Geographic, and the History Channel. All in all, Pozner has composed over 3,600 pieces for film and television.

As a musical performer, he toured as a member of the Tom Tom Club with the Grateful Dead, Fine Young Cannibals, U2, Keith Richards, and Robert Palmer, among others, and as a recording engineer, he has worked on more than 60 records. As a music educator, he already holds a TESL/TESOL certificate and has worked since 2000 with Projetos Novas Descobertas, based in Portugal, on teaching the English language through music.

Although Pozner originally came to Lehman to study composing, Dr. Bernard Shockett, chair of the Music Department, convinced him to join the master's program. Among the department's faculty, Pozner credits, in particular, Penny Prince. "She has been the most inspirational teacher for me," he says, "and has already helped me a great deal."

He is currently working on compositions for several other episodes of PBS's Nature, as well as music for a new series to premiere on the History Channel, called Behind the Scenes.

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