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He once told "Down Beat" magazine: "Growing up in an agricultural community, I worked on a ranch through high school. I was interested in cattle and horses and entering college. I switched to music out of guilt for the immense effort and expense that my father spent on my musical education."

He was a piano major at the University of Colorado. When he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music in 1959, his idea was to become a teacher. However, when he got the chance to tour with Andy Williams he met his future business partner, drummer Larry Rosen and it put an end to his academic aspirations.

Grusin moved to Los Angeles when Williams began hosting a weekly variety show on TV. During the same "Down Beat" interview he commented "It was a grind, a very hard job but for me it turned out to be an amazing workshop, writing a whole show every week. I hadn't had that much arranging experience, so I had to learn real fast."

Early influences on Grusin were Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Red Garland. Once his admiration was caught by people like Max Steiner, Andre Previn, Alfred Newman, David Raskin and Hugo Friedhoffer, he began to pursue motion picture score writing. After he left "The Andy Williams Show" in 1964, the work snowballed. He wrote for "The Graduate," "Divorce American Style," "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," "Three Days of the Condor," "Bobby Deerfield,"

"Winning," and "The Front." He was nominated for the Academy Award many times, including "Heaven Can Wait," "The Champ," "On Golden Pond", "Tootsie," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "Havana," "The Firm." He won his first Oscar for "The Milagro Beanfield War."

In addition to his movie work, Grusin has also written the TV themes for "Maude", "Good Times", "Baretta" and "St. Elsewhere", to name a few.

Grusin has also received an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music, the Richard Kirk Award for Lifetime Achievement from the 1989 BMI Motion Picture and Television Awards and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Colorado.

In addition to his academy award, he has also won three Grammy Awards for both "The Milagro Beanfield War" and "The Gershwin Connection."

There exists an album called "The Orchestral Dave Grusin" which contains selections from a thiry-five year career of writing film scores, arranging records and composing music for non-media purposes. In a press release promoting that album, Grusin wrote some interesting observations culled from his years in the business.

"Symphonic traditions have been developing for over 300 years and the study of the interaction between instruments of varying timbres goes on and on."

"It's always an exciting experience to hear various combinations of instruments in new settings. I suppose one never finishes with that seductive learning process."

"Strictly speaking, although I had a basic introduction to the orchestra while in college, most of my study of orchestration has been on-the-job. My admiration is unbounded for those arrangers and orchestrators who use the orchestra with grace and facility. For them, the orchestra is the primary instrument. I learn from them each time I hear their work. I also believe that the art of composition is so tied to the craft of orchestration that it is impossible to separate. Similarly, the making of a new arrangement of an existing work almost always requires definite elements of composition in order to make it unique."

In conclusion, Dave Grusin said that he wishes to thank all the orchestral players with whom he has been privileged to work over the years, from Hollywood to New York, to London and elsewhere. They are all individual artists who have learned that the power of the orchestra is working and playing cooperatively together, and that the musical sum is infinitely greater than the parts.

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