# Robert Aldridge (composer)

Robert Livingstone Aldridge (September 7, 1954 in Richmond, VA) is an American composer, professor, and current Head of Composition professor, and former Director of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He has written over eighty works for orchestra, opera, musical theater, dance, and various chamber ensembles that have been performed in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He is widely known for his opera Elmer Gantry, based on Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel of the same name. which was completed in 2007 and won Best Engineered Album (Classical) and Best Contemporary Classical Composition in the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.

## Biography

Aldridge holds degrees in both composition and English literature. Aldridge received a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master's degree in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a doctorate in composition from the Yale School of Music in 2000.
In November 2007, an opera titled Elmer Gantry by Robert Aldridge and with a libretto by Herschel Garfein premiered in the James K. Polk Theater in Nashville.
Parables also with a libretto by Herschel Garfein was a work commissioned by the Topeka Symphony. It premiered in May 2010.
He was professor of composition at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He was appointed director of the music department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2012.
Robert Aldridge currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife Paula Stark, a landscape artist. They have one daughter, Micaela Aldridge (b.1994).

## Honors and awards

He has received numerous fellowships and awards for his music from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Massachusetts Artist's Foundation, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, Meet the Composer, the American Symphony Orchestra League, the New Jersey Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

## Works

Works :
| Year | Work | Instrumentation | Premiere Performer |
| 1983 | Combo Platter | | Marimolin |
| 1984 | Summerdance | Chamber ensemble | Beth Soll Dance Company |
| 1986 | Fanfare and March | Marching band | Blackstone High School |
| 1986 | Concerto for Violin and Percussion | Percussion ensemble | New England Conservatory |
| 1987 | Threedance | Violin, marimba, and tablas | Marimolin |
| 1987 | Parable of the Blind | Chamber ensemble | The American Dance Festival |
| 1987 | Ghosts | String quartet | Boston Composer's String Quartet |
| 1988 | From my little Island | Marimba | Nancy Zeltsman |
| 1989 | Quartet for an Outdoor Festival | Chamber ensemble | Lincoln-Center-Out-of-Doors |
| 1992 | The Concord Trio | Clarinet, horn, and piano | Concord Community Music School |
| 1993 | Three Folksongs | Clarinet and string quartet | Pacific Serenades |
| 1996 | String Quartet no. 2 | | The Kucharsky Quartet |
| 1997 | Larger Than Life | Musical | developed by Manhattan Theatre Club |
| 1998 | Music from 'The Third Person' | | Betty Buckley (with Herschel Garfein) |
| 1998 | Ecstatic Overture | Orchestra | Norwalk Symphony & Boston Civic Orchestra |
| 1998 | Concerto for Violin and Orchestra | | Topeka Symphony |
| 1999 | Celebration Overture | Orchestra | The Gulf Coast Symphony |
| 1999 | SoundMovesBlues | | SoundMoves |
| 2000 | A Prayer, for a Music | | Oregon Festival Chorale |
| 2001 | Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano | | The Gramercy Trio |
| 2001 | The Third Person | Musical | The York Theatre Company |
| 2002 | War Stories | Concert band | Monclair State University Concert Band |
| 2003 | Leda and the Swan | Orchestra | The New Jersey Symphony |
| 2004 | Clarinet Concerto | | LA Chamber Orchestra |
| 2007 | Elmer Gantry | Opera | Nashville Opera |
| 2010 | Parables | Oratorio | Topeka Symphony Orchestra |
| 2011 | Three Waltzes | Piano Solo | Vivian Wang |
| 2016 | Sister Carrie | opera | Milwaukee |