James Taylor Anderson is a composer and pianist. He studied at Stanford University from 1953–1955 and at Brandeis University from 1956–1959. Anderson studied with with Milton Babbitt in 1957 and Aaron Copland in 1959 at Tanglewood. He studied Indian drumming with Tanjore Ranganathan from 1963–1965 at Wesleyan University. He worked from 1960–1961 at Playhouse-in-the-Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1959–1965, Anderson was a pianist and composer for the dancer/choreographer Robert Cohan.