Robert Sirota

Composer Robert Sirota has created a substantial body of orchestral, chamber, choral, and stage music over a career spanning more than five decades. His work connects a wide range of performers and artistic disciplines, from string quartets and vocal ensembles to dance, liturgical music, and collaborations with singer-songwriter Paul Simon.

Sirota’s Third String Quartet, Wave Upon Wave, was commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation for the Telegraph Quartet and premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Other projects include Rising, a collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance, and the Neave Trio, and Luminous Bodies, written for yMusic and pianist Jeffrey Kahane. His music has been heard at Tanglewood, Aspen, and Yellow Barn.

An experienced conservatory leader, Sirota served as president of Manhattan School of Music from 2005 to 2012 and previously directed the Peabody Institute and Boston University’s School of Music. In 2021, he founded Muzzy Ridge Concerts in Searsmont, Maine.

Sirota studied piano and composition at Oberlin, worked with Nadia Boulanger in Paris through a Watson Fellowship, and earned a doctorate at Harvard with Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner. His honors include support from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo: Ryuhei Shindo