Robert sirota, composer

Born in 1949 in New York City, Robert Sirota pursued 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 PhD 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 stage works, solo works for organ, songs, large and small choral works, and concertos for viola, cello, organ, and saxophone. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe, most recently in Moscow, Athens, Oradea (Romania), Crete, and Toulouse, as well as frequent performances in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington.

Among notable commissions are works for the Empire Brass, the Seattle Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the American Guild of Organists, the Chiara String Quartet, the Fischer Duo, and the Peabody Trio. 

Dr. Sirota is recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Watson Foundation, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and the American Music Center.  His works are published by Boelke-Bomart, Music Associates of New York, Theodore Presser, and MorningStar, and are recorded on the Capstone and Gasparo labels.  He was a member of the Composition Faculty at the Peabody Conservatory from 1995 - 2005, when he accepted the appointment as Director of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.

In 2005, Dr. Sirota was named the eighth President of Manhattan School of Music.