Robert Sirota, composer

Robert Sirota got his early training in composition at Juilliard, and received a Bachelor of Music degree in piano and composition from Oberlin Conservatory. After a year of study in Europe, he earned a Ph.D. in composition at Harvard. His principal teachers include Richard Hoffmann, Joseph Wood, Earl Kim, Leon Kirchner, and Nadia Boulanger. Widely known as a composer and conductor of new music, Dr. Sirota's catalogue includes various solo and chamber works, four operas, several musical theatre works, numerous works for organ, large and small choral works, and concertos for cello, organ, and saxophone. His works have been performed in the United States and Europe, most recently in Athens, Boston, Crete, Moscow, New York, Seattle, and Oradea (Romania). Among his commissions are works for the Empire Brass, The American Guild of Organists, The Seattle Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Fischer Duo, The Peabody Trio, and the Chiara String Quartet. He is the recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Watson Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Music Center. He is recorded on the Capstone and Gasparo labels, published by Theodore Presser, Boelke-Bomart, Morning Star, and Music Associates of New York, and represented by George Sturm at Music Associates of America.

An active conductor specializing in contemporary music, he has led the premiere performances of dozens of new works. Recently at Peabody he conducted the first performance of the operas Where Angels Fear to Tread by Marc Weiser, and A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten.

Dr. Sirota has taught at Boston University, the Tanglewood Music Center, and at MIT, and was Chair of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at NYU. He is currently Director of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.

March 9, 2003