Michael Gandolfi, classical music composer

Michael Gandolfi

Biography

Michael Gandolfi's earliest musical involvement was in rock and jazz improvisation beginning at age eight as a self-taught guitarist. As his improvisational skills developed he became increasingly interested in music composition and began formal study in his early teens.

He received the B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as fellowships for study at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Composers Conference, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Mr. Gandolfi is the recipient of numerous awards including grants from the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His music has been performed by many leading ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

This season, Mr. Gandolfi's Geppetto's Workshop, featuring Brook Ferguson Schoenwald, flute and Hugh Hinton, piano, will be performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, as part of the Conservatory's Composers Series Concert.

Also featured during the '10-'11 season are Points of Departure, conducted by Cristian Macelaru in a performance at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and Canzona Nova: Fractured Fairy Tale, performed by the Atlanta Chamber Players in Morrow, Georgia as well as Boston and New York.
Please see Michael's CALENDAR for additional information.

Recent highlights include the premiere of Q.E.D.: Engaging Richard Feynman and The Garden of Cosmic Speculation by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Spano (2010 and 2007, respectively); the 2009 Grammy nomination of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation; the commission by the St. Botolph Club of Plain Song, Fantastic Dances, premiered in October 2005 by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players; Trivia, a piano trio, written for the Weilerstein Trio and premiered in January 2006; As Above, a work for large chamber ensemble with video by Ean White, commissioned by Collage New Music, and premiered in April 2005; and Impressions from 'The Garden of Cosmic Speculation,' which was premiered in August 2004 by Robert Spano and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and subsequently performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman. In April 2006, Impressions from 'The Garden of Cosmic Speculation' was performed by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Bridget- Michaele Reischl. Selections from the piece were used in Nigel Wattis' documentary film on Charles Jencks' Garden.

In early 2005 Mr. Gandolfi completed his third new work for young audiences, The Piper's Tale, an adaptation of 'The Pied Piper,' words by Dana Bonstrom, which was premiered by the Boston Musica Viva and Marimba Magic with Bob McGrath, narrator. In April 1999 Mr. Gandolfi's Pinocchio's Adventures in Funland, written for young audiences, was premiered by the New Millennium Ensemble with David Margulies, narrator at New York's Merkin Concert Hall. It was commissioned by the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center on a text by Dana Bonstrom. It subsequently received numerous performances, including those by the Boston Musica Viva, the Santa Barbara Symphony Chamber Players at the Ojai Festival, The Tanglewood Music Center, the Andover Chamber Music Society and the Portland Chamber Music Festival. It received its European premiere in 2000 in Portugal by the Remix Ensemble. The Concord Symphony Orchestra funded a full orchestration of the score and premiered the piece in that form, under the direction of Richard Pittman, during their 2000/2001 season. Mr. Gandolfi again worked with Dana Bonstrom for a project commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Education Division. The resulting work Gwendolyn Gets Her Wish was premiered in April 2002, and will be performed in the Los Angeles public schools as the cornerstone of a five year arts-in-education initiative.

Mr. Gandolfi's Vientos y Tangos (2003) for wind ensemble, co-commissioned by a consortium of fifteen wind ensembles, in celebration of Frank Battisti's seventieth birthday, is now published by Boosey and Hawkes as part of their Windependence Series. It has been performed worldwide and has received five recordings to date. In the summer of 2001, Mr. Gandolfi wrote music for the Shakespeare and Company's production of a Midsummer Night's Dream, under the direction of Tina Packer. A concert adaptation of that score, Themes from a Midsummer Night, was premiered at Jordan Hall in the fall of 2001. He presently holds commissions from the Michael Vyner Trust (a piano concerto), the Fromm Foundation (a saxophone concerto for Kenneth Radnovsky and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, 2007), the Weilerstein Trio, and Boston-based pianist Duncan Cumming.

Mr. Gandolfi's music has been recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, CRI, Innova and Klavier labels. Additional recordings are available from USMB Recordings. He is a faculty member of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center. He was a visiting lecturer on music at Harvard University in 2002, and held a similar position there from 1996-1999. He is listed in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

(from michaelgandolfi.com)


Composer Title Date Action
Michael Gandolfi Winter Light 11/13/2014 Play Add to playlist