Schocker, Gary
Schocker has composed sonatas and chamber music for most instruments of the orchestra. He also has written several musicals, including Far From the Madding Crowd and The Awakening, which can be heard on Original Cast Recordings. Both shows were winners of the Global Search for New Musicals in the UK and were performed in Cardiff and at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as in New Zealand. In New York, they were winners of the ASCAP music theatre awards.
Schocker has won the International Clarinet Association's annual composition competition twice and the National Flute Association's annual Newly Published Music Award numerous times. Among artists who have played his compositions, James Galway gave the American premier of Green Places with the New Jersey Symphony.
In 2008 Schocker was commissioned to write the required piece "Biwako Wind" for the International Flute Competition in Biwako, Japan for which he also served as judge.
Gary has private flute studios in NYC and Easton, PA where he dually resides. He is on the faculty at NYU. He performs on both Haynes and Powell flutes and headjoints of David Williams (platinum) and David Chu (boxwood).