User:Raldag

Richard Aldag is an American-born composer, educator, and arts administrator (born in Queens, New York City on August 8, 1955). He grew up in Howard Beach, Queens and attended Queens College. Aldag holds a Ph.D. in Music from the City University of New York Graduate Center. His principal teachers include Carlos Surinach, Henry Weinberg, and George Perle in music composition; Carl Schachter and Saul Novack in music theory and music analysis; and Barry S. Brook in musicology.

Aldag’s compositional style can be loosely described as Neo-Abstract Expressionism, combining lyricism with rhythmic energy in a post-tonal context that is complex, yet accessible at the same time. Influences include the music of Roger Sessions, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Ralph Shapey, as well as a variety of 1960s rock bands. He has received commissions from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Queens Symphony’s “Sounds from the Left Bank,” Trio Versailles, Earplay, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.

In a review of a performance by Earplay, the San Francisco Chronicle stated: “The evening's most potent offering was the premiere of Sappho Fragments, a quartet of short settings for soprano and string trio by San Jose composer Richard Aldag. Aldag underscores the disconnected nature of his texts by writing seamless chordal textures for the strings, in all but one of the movements, then punctuating them with brief, arrestingly rhetorical interjections by the singer. The effect is to leave the listener grasping at the tiny, elusive snippets of Sappho (all we have, tragically, of that unforgettable poetic voice). The string music, meanwhile -- now elegiac, now vivacious -- passes in wordless eloquence, as if hinting at all that has been lost.”

Aldag has served on the faculties of the San José State University School of Music and Dance (1993-2006), the Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College (1989-1992), Fordham University (1983-1992), and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (1980-1992). He served as a special lecturer in music composition and contemporary American music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1991 and 1992.

In addition to his work as composer and educator, Aldag has held administrative positions that include Executive Director of the Napa Valley Symphony (2006-2011); Executive Director of Lincoln Theater Napa Valley (2009-2011); Executive Director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (2002-2007), Executive Director of Los Lupeños de San José (1998-2000); and Director of the Silicon Valley Youth Conservatory at San José State University (1995-1998).

Aldag lives in Yountville, CA. He has two sons, Luca and Claudio, who live in San Francisco.

References

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/At-20-Earplay-sharp-as-ever-2672909.php

External Links

http://www.sfcv.org/article/fall-of-the-napa-valley-symphony