Conductor Gary Fry has also led the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the Atlanta Symphony orchestras in programs featuring his singer/songwriter son Cody Fry. Long active as a conductor for various professional instrumental ensembles and choruses, Gary has conducted orchestras with chorus at Carnegie Hall in New York City and Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and has served as conductor and artistic director for the United Nations Rhythms of One World music festival in New York and Geneva, Switzerland. His career composing advertising music led to a stint as music director for the Clio Awards show, and his involvement in education has included conducting a variety of university and high school orchestras.
As a composer, Gary Fry has achieved notable success in the fields of both commercial music and symphonic music. He served as composer/arranger for the popular Welcome, Yule! Christmas concerts of the renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra for many years, and has become the most-performed living composer by the CSO. He has written nearly a hundred works for them, and also now serves as arranger and artistic consultant to the Charlotte, Dallas, San Diego, and Colorado symphony orchestras for their holiday programs. Many other orchestras from around the country regularly program his compositions and arrangements, and some of America’s most prominent churches have commissioned sacred music for chorus and orchestra from him.
Gary has composed for film, television, live theater, ballet, and more than 2500 radio and television commercials for McDonald’s, Sears, Kellogg’s, and hundreds of other major national advertisers. He was honored with an Emmy Award for his promotional music work for Chicago’s CBS affiliate WBBM-TV in 2006. United Airlines commissioned Gary to create an electronic version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for the United Airlines terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where it is heard by more than 250,000 air travelers each year.
Gary and his wife Carol now make their home in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.