The American composer and teacher Alfred Reed was among the most prolific composers of works for concert band, with over 200 compositions to his credit. As a boy in New York he had played the trumpet and gained a wider experience of music. War service in the Army Air Corps Band brought him first hand experience of music for wind band and on his release from military service he studied at The Juilliard School. A period from 1948 as an arranger for NBC and then for ABC was followed by study at Baylor University, where he conducted the University Symphony Orchestra and took his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. From 1955 he was employed as an editor by the music publishers Hansen, but in 1966 took an appointment as professor at Miami University, where he remained for the rest of his career, retiring in 1993.