Biography

At the age of 15, he was employed by Angel Martìnez, a onetime Mexican shoeshine boy turned traveling Baptist revival preacher, to play piano during a tour of the Southern United States where revival meetings were held in football stadiums and other venues that could hold the thousands of devout attendees. Gerald soon learned that his performance was judged a success by how readily he could bring the women to tears.

After attending Baylor University for one year, he transferred to Yale, where he graduated with a degree in music.

Is a long-time resident of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

Worked as an associate with Virgil Thomson during that composer's later years and was the subject of one of Virgil's "portraits in music".