Biography

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Grammy Award winner Victor Vanacore has been at the nexus of popular  music for more than 30 years. Widely respected for his versatility, he has had a long history of fruitful collaborations with the biggest names  in the entertainment industry as a conductor, pianist, composer and arranger.

Originally from New Haven, Connecticut, Mr. Vanacore began learning the piano at the age of six, and wrote his first composition at the age of eight, thus beginning his life-long fascination with music. As a teenager, he played the piano in nightclubs, shows, and  theaters, receiving valuable experience along the way by accompanying Broadway acts, opera singers, and celebrities.  After serving in the U.S. Navy Band, he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music from which he recently received an Alumnus Recognition  Award as “One of the Top 60 Alumni.”

Mr. Vanacore is a member of ASCAP, AFTRA, the National  Association of Recording Arts and Sciences, The Society of Composers and  Lyricists and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. He resides in Southern California where he enjoys spending time with his family and hobbies including sailing, golf, scuba diving and making pizza in his imported outdoor ovens.

Mr. Vanacore’s latest musical incarnation is that of symphony pops  conductor. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Grand Rapids,  Kansas City, Stockton, Tucson, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Jacksonville,  Buffalo, Phoenix and St. Louis Symphonies, among others. He has also worked with orchestras that include the Los Angeles  Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. Abroad, he has worked with the philharmonic orchestras of Calgary, London, Belgrade, Bratislava and Skopje, as well as the Hanover Pops, the Mozarteum Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, Edmonton and  Vancouver.

In conjunction with his career as a pops conductor, Mr. Vanacore has had numerous associations with celebrity vocalists. He served as conductor, keyboardist and musical arranger for The Jackson Five, as well as conductor and arranger for The Fifth Dimension. Not long afterward, Johnny Mathis hired him as musical director for his world tour. He joined Barry Manilow for six years in the same capacity, receiving album credits including “If I Should Love Again”, “Barry Live in Britain”, “Barry” and “The Greatest Hits.” More recent recording projects have included collaborations with Natalie Cole, Teena Marie, George Benson  and Dave Koz.

Additionally, Mr. Vanacore feels honored to have enjoyed a close relationship with the late musical icon Ray Charles, who he met in 1990.  They remained colleagues and friends until Mr. Charles’ passing in  2004, during which time he served as his musical director, arranger and opening act.      Ray Charles’ only platinum album, “Genius Loves Company”, features Mr. Vanacore’s orchestral arrangements, including the Grammy-winning  “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with special guest Johnny Mathis.

As a composer/arranger, Mr. Vanacore’s recent work has included the Motown themed “Detroit Soul” for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; “America Then and Now” for the New Jersey Public Television Network and “Spain Meets Birdland” for the Berklee College of Music’s 60th Anniversary. He has also been composing in collaboration with his brother David on the critically acclaimed hit CBS show “Survivor.” Other television credits include music for the 2005 Academy Awards Show, Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” and “American Idol.” He received the 2009 Telly Award for his musical contribution to the City of Hope Cancer Center’s fundraising video entitled “Thank You”. Recent recordings include Natalie Cole, Teena Marie, George Benson, and Dave Koz.

Vanacore has also recently celebrated the world premiere of his Oratorio "La Sorgente" (The Source), a neo-classical work inspired by the poems of St. John Paul II.

For several years now, Maestro Vanacore has been a composer-in-residence at the Festival of The Arts “Pageant of the Masters” at Laguna Beach, California, where he has been commissioned annually to provide compositions and arrangements of all styles, Classical to Modern to Gospel to accompany living art ("tableaux vivants").

Mr. Vanacore has been engaged in conducting his eight most popular shows throughout the US and Canada. Each concert package includes his top-notch piano playing, Grammy Award-winning arrangements and a stage presence that please both audiences and orchestras alike. 

(Click on titles for full description)

• HOT! HOT! HOT!

• SWING! SWING! SWING!

• BROADWAY NOW

• RED, WHITE AND BLUES

• A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

• BORN IN THE USA

• AMERICAN STANDARD TIME

• DANCIN' IN THE STREETS 

From a musician playing in a recent concert:

“…Vanacore not only arranges the material we play, he actually reinvents the piece to where every instrument actually has something to play…”


From a recent reviewer:

"As a conductor, Vanacore is super-casual (he gulped water from a plastic bottle while at the podium) and is very funny in a really nice kind of way. He is also a strict taskmaster when it comes to orchestra leadership. He didn't ask the orchestra, but rather required them to follow his accurate beat, communicating directions to the musicians in a very stern manner. The result was some fine playing even with, as Vanacore reported to the audience, little rehearsal. Everything worked fine.”

Bill Peters/Glendale News Press

Vanacore also is Chairman of Colonial Road Music, a cutting edge symphony pops rental company specializing in providing special musical arrangements to orchestras worldwide.