A native of Southern California, Gary Anderson graduated summa cum laude from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with legendary saxophonist Charlie Mariano. Anderson began his professional music life as a full-time professor as well as a member of the world-renowned Berklee Saxophone Quartet, which included mentors Joe Viola and John LaPorta. What should have been a short trip for Anderson from Boston to New York ended up taking five years and totaled 686,321 miles as featured arranger and music director for Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, a journey that included arranging for and producing albums that included King Cobra and Live at Montreux; the Main Event tour with Frank Sinatra; concerts and TV specials with Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughn, and Pete Barbutti; writing the arrangement of “Fanfare For the Common Man” for the Thundering Herd; and culminating at Carnegie Hall for Woody Herman’s 40th Anniversary Celebration.
Settling in New York, Anderson was mentored by the great arranger Ralph Burns and was soon working as an orchestrator on Broadway. His first assignment was rewriting the arrangements for the national touring company of A Chorus Line, followed by Dancin’ and They’re Playing Our Song. Although Anderson’s career in New York has included creating music for hundreds of TV, film, and Broadway productions, and collaborating with entertainment and TV icons ranging from Mark Goodson to Roone Arledge to Ted Turner and Marvin Hamlisch to Lena Horne to Bob Fosse, Anderson’s most recognized creation to date is the Itchy & Scratchy theme from The Simpsons.
Anderson’s awards include numerous Emmy nominations, for programs ranging from Tattletales and Matchgame to One Life to Live and Guiding Light, to a Grammy for the soundtrack to Elmopalooza (Sesame Street’s 30th Anniversary) and being honored as one of Berklee College’s Fifty Outstanding Alumni, along with fellow musical minds Alf Clawson and Quincy Jones. Since relocating to Las Vegas. Anderson has continued composing and producing new music for ABC’s Election Coverage, the 2017 Inauguration, World News This Morning, and Good Morning America, plus the honor of being chief arranger for the MDA Labor Day Telethon with Jerry Lewis.
Anderson has also contributed to the film genre, writing music for Arbitrage starring Richard Gere and currently working on music for Fake News starring John Savage and Eric Roberts. On the live stage in Las Vegas, Anderson is proud of his work as the arranger for Vegas! The Show, currently in it’s seventh year at Planet Hollywood, as well as Tony Sacca’s Vegas The Story, plus Brian Evans’ Croonerman and Mark OToole’s A Night at the Copa. Most recently Gary has been in the studio composing and producing for Animal Planet’s Housecat Housecall as well as music for ABC TV’s Nightline, the Annual Academy Awards Pre-show Oscar’s Red Carpet, and ABC News’ World News Now.