An American Compoer
GEORGE FREDERICK BRISTOW
This 30-minute documentary, currently in development and directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, explores the life and legacy of George Frederick Bristow (1825–1898), a 19th-century American composer, conductor, and educator who played a pivotal role in shaping a national musical voice. At a time when American concert life was heavily influenced by European tastes, Bristow stood apart—championing American composers, engaging with vernacular styles, and advocating for music that reflected the nation’s cultural identity.
In addition to his contributions as a composer and conductor, the film places particular focus on Bristow’s enduring commitment to public education. Though widely respected in artistic circles, Bristow consistently prioritized his work as a teacher in New York’s public schools, viewing music education as essential to the nation’s cultural development. His dedication was unwavering; he died in December 1898, the same year his Niagara Symphony premiered, after collapsing while lecturing at an elementary school—an end that underscores how deeply he believed in the role of music in everyday American life.
Slated for completion ahead of the upcoming performance of Bristow’s Niagara Symphony at Carnegie Hall on January 29, 2026, the film will accompany this historic event—offering a broader historical and cultural context to Bristow’s contributions and his enduring relevance. As you are well aware, this landmark performance—conducted by Leon Botstein with the American Symphony Orchestra and Chorus—marks the first presentation of Niagara in over a century and coincides with the 200th anniversary of Bristow’s birth.
Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley and based on the authoritative biography by Katherine K. Preston, the documentary forms part of a broader public humanities initiative in advance of the 2026 Semiquincentennial. Developed in collaboration with institutions across more than 20 states—including the New York Philharmonic Archives, the Graduate Center at CUNY, and Bard College—the film combines archival research, performance footage, and expert commentary to reintroduce Bristow’s overlooked legacy to contemporary audiences, situating his work at the heart of a larger story about American identity and artistic ambition.
MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
FORGING AMERICAN MUSIC IDENTITY (FAMI)
FAMI is a collaborative research and educational initiative dedicated to exploring how American composers, musicians, and institutions helped shape a distinct national sound from the 19th century onward.FAMI often partners with universities, libraries, orchestras, and scholars. If you’re seeing it in the context of your work on Bristow, it’s likely a supporting or affiliated framework for that project, amplifying its scholarly and cultural value.
FAMI MEMBERS
Katherine K. PRESTON, David N. & Margaret C. Bottoms Professor of Music Emerita, College of William & Mary, and Chair of the Bristow Committee. Preston is an expert on musical culture in 19th-century America, especially musical theatre and opera, the work of journeymen musicians, and George Bristow. Her four monogaphs include two path-breaking books on the history of opera performance in 19th-century America and a biography of Bristow; she has also edited or co-edited four volumes of music, including two of Bristow’s symphonies. She is Past-President of the Society for American Music.
Neely BRUCE, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. Bruce is a prolific composer, an accomplished conductor and pianist, and a scholar of American music. He self-consciously identifies as an American composer. His most performed work is a setting of the Bill of Rights for chorus and chamber orchestra. He has also set the three Reconstruction Amendments and the Nineteenth Amendment (women's sufferage) to music, and his first full-length opera is an allegory of the American Revolution. He recorded Bristow’s “Andante et Polonaise” for Vox in 1972 and produced the only 20th century performances of Bristow’s opera Rip Van Winkle at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1974.
John GRAZIANO, Professor Emeritus of Music History and Director of the Music in Gotham Project at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Graziano is an expert on nineteenth-century American music history and has published widely on that topic.
Barbara HAWS recently completed her doctoral dissertation (Oxford, 2023), “The Making of an American Orchestra: U.C. Hill and the Philharmonic in New York, 1815-1848,” which focuses on New York’s music community. Prior to that she was the founding Archivist and Historian at the New York Philharmonic. She managed major private as well as NEH grants for the digitization of the orchestra’s historic archives which is the largest online performance database in the world. After 33 years, upon her retirement in 2018 from the Philharmonic, she was given the title emerita Archivist and Historian.
Kevin SCOTT is a composer and conductor currently residing in Hudson Falls, New York who has appeared with numerous orchestras as an untiring advocate of new, unknown or unjustly neglected composers and has also been invited to several universities and music societies as a guest lecturer to talk about orchestral repertoire and new composers. His contributions include his working relationships with scores of scholars, conductors, and performers who are interested in working on the project and interest in organizing events.
Douglas W. SHADLE, an Associate Professor of Musicology at Vanderbilt University, is a scholar of orchestras and orchestral music in the United States. A two-time winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award, Shadle is the author of two books, Orchestrating the Nation: The Nineteenth-Century American Symphonic Enterprise (Oxford, 2016) and Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony (Oxford, 2021). He regularly consults on audience engagement projects for orchestras around the world.
