Gordon Peter Getty, born on December 20, 1933, in San Francisco, California, is an American businessman and classical music composer. He studied singing with Verna Osborne and earned a B.A. in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Getty initially joined the oil business but eventually sold the family's Getty Oil to Texaco in 1986 for $10 billion. His classical music career included composing several operas, such as Plump Jack and Joan and the Bells. In 2003, he released his album Getty: Joan and the Bells / Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet Suite no. 2, and his opera Usher House was performed by the San Francisco Opera in 2015. Notable achievements include receiving the Outstanding American Composer award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1986 and the University of San Francisco Alumnus of the Year in 2015.
