A native of Santa Cruz, California, Scott J. Ordway (b. 1984) is a defected baseball star, amateur photographer, consummate dinner-partier, terrible painter, ex-indie rocker, gregarious chef, one-time racquetball champion, and composer of serious art music. With influences drawn from all corners of the indie world, the western classical tradition, and 21st century experimentalism, Scott's music can be difficult to pin down.

His work has been featured at home and abroad by organizations such as the Estate Musicale Chigiana (Siena, Italy), the Oregon Bach Festival, Radio Classica Rome & Milan, the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (Portland), the Tobenski-Algera Concert Series (NYC), the Oregon Composer's Forum, the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Emerald Chamber Music Society, the Eugene Composer's Collective, the University of Puget Sound New Music Society, and others.

His first symphony was awarded the 2008 John Kenneth Cole Composition Prize and his Piano Trio No. 2, "We Were Lost, But There Was Laughter There" was featured at the Festival Chigiana in Tuscany in 2007. Other recent activities include performances by the So Percussion Ensemble, readings by the Fireworks Ensemble and masterclasses with Azio Corghi of the Santa Cecila Conservatory in Rome, Roberto Sierra of Cornell University, Martin Bresnick of the Yale School of Music, and Lisa Moore of the Bang on a Can All Stars. , and he is the recipient of grants and awards from the American Composer's Forum, the American Music Center, the University of Puget Sound, and the University of Oregon. David Russell, principal cellist of Opera Boston, recently performed his solo cello work, Butterscotch, Hopscotch, & Scotch, in New York City.

Also active as a conductor, Mr. Ordway is director of the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble and was recently named Associate Conductor of the Juventas! New Music Ensemble in Boston. During the 2007–2008 season gave performances of 20th and 21st century music by some 20 composers. Featured works included several premieres by Oregon composers, Milhaud's La Création du Monde, and Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 2. He gave several world premiers as piano soloist at the 2007 Oregon Bach Festival and is a regular performer of his own music. The premiere of his Symphony No. 2, "Crime in the House of Names" will take place in Eugene in November 2008.

A distinguished alumnus of the Univeristy of Puget Sound (with degrees in both Music & English Literature), Scott now resides in Eugene, where he is a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Composition and Ruth Lorraine Close Music Fellow at the University of Oregon.