George Brandon, PhD, is a musician, anthropologist and integrative sound and music practitionerwhose musical roots began with guitar lessons from his father and continued in junior high school with the trombone. By high school he was playing professionally in local swing bands, rhythm and blues, gospel, and classical ensembles in his home town of Newark, NJ. His continuing musical curiosity has led him to extend this early background by studying West African music, Balinese and Javanese gamelan, electronic music, Afrocuban chant and calypso all of which have affected his development as a composer. He was charter member of the Jazzmobile Workshop and received an NEA grant to study with jazz composer and theorist George Russell. His anthropological studies have given him a global historical and social perspective that decisively affects his conception of music and guides his work as composer.