Michael Gandolfi has a broad range of musical interests encompassing not only contemporary concert music but jazz, blues and rock, through which he first became a musician. The span of his musical investigation is paralleled by his cultural curiosity, resulting in many points of contact between the world of music and other disciplines, including science, film, and theater.
Recent premieres include Houston: September 12, 1962 by the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Anthems, Fanfares, and a Lullaby by a consortium of CBDNA ensembles, A Garden Feeds also the Soul by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Ruse by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, The Cosmic Garden in Bloom by the Grant Park Orchestra; Ascending Light for organ and orchestra by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Olivier Latry, soloist; Imaginary Numbers, a concerto for four soloists, by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Carroll in Numberland, a work for Dawn Upshaw, three ‘back-up’ singers, and chamber ensemble at the Tanglewood Music Center; and Sinfonia Brevis, by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Gandolfi’s many honors and awards include two National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commission grants, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission, Massachusetts Cultural Council Composer Fellowship, the 2009 Grammy Award nomination for ‘Best Classical Contemporary Composition,’ for his The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, the 2013 Sousa/Oswald Award for Band, two Fromm Foundation Grants, a Meet the Composer/American Symphony Orchestra league Music Alive residency, and a 2013 Composers Award from the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, among others. He enjoys long-standing relationships with the Atlanta, Boston, and Memphis Symphony Orchestras, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Boston Musica Viva.
Gandolfi chairs the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music, is Composition Head at the Tanglewood Music Center, and has been a faculty member at Harvard University, Indiana University, and Boston University.
Gandolfi was introduced to Cabrillo Festival last season and returns as composer in residence for the West Coast premiere of Part 1 of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation on Sunday, August 12, during the Of Other Worlds concert.
