William Bradbury is an Emmy Award-winning composer. He received his doctoral degree in music composition from Cornell University where he studied with Karel Husa, Steven Stucky and Yehudi Wyner. While at Cornell he also studied Indonesian gamelan with Sumarsam and Martin Hatch as well as music history/theory with William Austin and Roger Parker. Bradbury is Professor Emeritus of Music and Music Technology in the Music Department at California State University, San Marcos where he taught for 30 years and served as Department Chair from 1998 to 2002 and again in 2005-06.

His creative activities include compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, soloists, and electronic media and have included computer-based multimedia collaborations with other artists: a work with visual artist Deborah Small and actress Dana Case was commissioned for in SITE97, an international art show based in San Diego and Tijuana. The PEN Trio commissioned his piece 5•4•3 (Except after C) and performed the work across the U.S. and internationally. Bradbury’s large-scale composition, LEAVES for Narrator, Piano and Orchestra, was commissioned in celebration of Palomar College’s 50th Anniversary and premiered by the Palomar College Orchestra with Dr. Peter Gach as piano soloist.

Bradbury has written musical scores for several films including Anza Borrego: Seasons in the Desert for which he received an Emmy Award for composing and arranging and he was commissioned to write the score for KPBS television’s film, San Diego’s Coastal Wonder. He has also composed music for a number of theatre productions at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad, CA.

Bradbury is an accomplished mandolin player and performs regularly with bass player Gunnar Biggs in the duo, MandoBasso. Click here for the MandoBasso website and for albums and videos of their music. In 2022 he issued the first solo mandolin album in a planned series, Mandolin Alone: Quiet Day. In 2025 he completed the second in the series, Mandolin Alone: Terry Riley’s In C, an all-mandolin version in honor of Riley’s 90th birthday and the 60th anniversary of the premiere of this important work. FLOAT for Mandolins and Electronics was completed in 2026. There are links to these albums and others which include Bradbury’s music on the Music page.

Bradbury has received grants or commissions from Meet the Composer, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Maryland Arts Council, and many others.

**And he is not this gentleman – a distant relative William B. Bradbury, 19th century composer of hymns including Jesus Loves Me.