Bob Telson

Bob Telson is an American composer, songwriter, and pianist born on May 14, 1949, in Cannes, France, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Paula (née Blackman) and David Telson. His musical education began at age five with piano study, and by nine he had performed a Mozart piece on television and presented a concert of his own compositions. At fourteen he wrote 72 songs, and at sixteen and seventeen he studied organ, counterpoint, and harmony in France under Nadia Boulanger. While a student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, he played organ and wrote original material for a rock band called The Bristols; several tracks were recorded at Decca Studios but went unreleased. At Harvard University, where he earned a degree in music in 1970, he formed a group called Groundspeed, which returned him to Decca Studios in 1967 to record the songs "L-12 East" and "In a Dream" with producer Dick Jacobs; the recording was released by the label in 1968. Following Groundspeed, Telson formed the Revolutionary Music Collective, whose lineup included a then-unknown Bonnie Raitt on lead vocals.

After graduating from Harvard, Telson joined the Philip Glass Ensemble, where he worked from 1972 to 1974. He subsequently performed as a pianist with salsa bandleaders Tito Puente and Machito, then served as organist for the gospel group the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, for whom he also composed, arranged, and produced. That relationship with the Five Blind Boys proved central to his most celebrated stage work. In 1983, collaborating with director and writer Lee Breuer, Telson composed The Gospel at Colonus, an adaptation of Sophocles's Oedipus story featuring Morgan Freeman, the Five Blind Boys, and the Soul Stirrers. The production premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music before transferring to Broadway in 1988, where it earned Telson Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, and Tony Award nominations. The work has continued to tour internationally.

Telson's Broadway credits also include Chronicle of a Death Foretold, an adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez novel produced by Lincoln Center in 1995, which brought him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Music in 1996. Earlier stage work with Lee Breuer includes Sister Suzie Cinema, which premiered at the New York Public Theater in 1980, and The Warrior Ant, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1988. A stage adaptation of Bagdad Café, again developed with Breuer and filmmaker Percy Adlon, toured Europe from 2004 to 2006. His musical Bantú, with libretto and lyrics by Graciela Corso, was presented in a concert version in New York in October 2023 and in Uruguay in November 2024.

Beyond the stage, Telson received an Academy Award nomination for the song "Calling You," written for the film Bagdad Café. He has composed film scores for American, French, German, and Argentinian productions, including five soundtracks for director Percy Adlon, and wrote a ballet score titled Sextet for choreographer Twyla Tharp. His songs have been recorded by artists including Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole, George Benson, Joe Cocker, Celine Dion, Wynton Marsalis, k.d. lang, Shawn Colvin, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Etta James, Jeff Buckley, and George Michael.

Telson's discography spans several decades and includes the original cast recording of The Gospel at Colonus on Nonesuch (1988), the Bagdad Café soundtrack on Island Records (1989), An Ant Alone: Songs from the Warrior Ant on Rykodisc (1991), Calling You on Warner Bros. (1992), La Vida Según Muriel on Polygram (1997), Old LP released on both Acqua and Naxos (2012), American Dreamers on CD Baby (2016), Defying the Distances (2019), and the albums Bantú and Desafiando las Distancias Part II, both released in December 2024.