A native of California, Buzz Gravelle is a composer, performer, and music educator, who has been an advocate for new music for plucked strings for over twenty years.
His love for contemporary composition was first kindled through his studies at UCLA with the late guitar pedagogue Theodore Norman and guitarist/composer Peter Yates. Buzz’s compositions are informed by a modernist’s perspective, yet are lyrical and expressive.  His music has been performed by; the Modern Arts Guitar Quartet, the Elgart/Yates guitar duo, the Thomson/Ratzkowski Duo (Denmark), the New Music Ensemble of North Texas State University, the Cal Poly Pomona University Guitar Ensemble, and the UCLA Guitar Ensemble, among others.
Buzz was a founding member of the Modern Arts Guitar Quartet (1991-1995),  an ensemble of guitarists/composers that explored the leading edges of new music for guitar--prepared guitar, serialism, minimalism, and aleatoric music.
Recently, Buzz has been exploring the fretless classical guitar, advocating greater exposure for this beautiful variant of the classical guitar. He believes it’s potential has largely been untapped, and has set about to raise awareness of its possibilities through original compositions, lecture/demonstrations, and performances.
Buzz is also a classical mandolinist. His recent recitals have featured the mandolin, both as a solo instrument and as a chamber music partner. His original compositions for the mandolin are garnering attention in the classical mandolin community. 
Buzz is a founding member of ensembreFRET, a performance collective founded in 2012. It's programs feature music for guitar, mandolin, and arpeggione, whether solo, in duos and trios, or in expandable combination with guest vocalists and instrumentalists. Results range from intimate art-song to massed guitars. ensembleFRET performs regularly in the Los Angeles area.
Buzz holds both M.F.A. and D.M.A. degrees in Music from UCLA. In addition to his studies with Peter Yates and Theodore Norman, Buzz has studied composition with Manuel Enriquez, Roger Bourland, and Ian Krouse; lute and theorbo with Michael Egan; and jazz guitar with Warren Nunes.
Buzz has over twenty years of experience as a music educator. He is on the faculty of California Polytechnic University at Pomona, in addition to being the founder and Director of the  Santa Monica Academy of Music , a community music school serving Santa Monica and its adjacent communities. 
Web: http://www.buzzgravelle.com/biography.html (2012)