Robert Sirota Biography

Robert Sirota

Hailed for his breadth of expressive range and mastery of craft, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.” In a career spanning over half a century, Sirota has garnered distinction as composer, arranger, music executive and arts advocate.

Robert Sirota’s chamber works have been performed by numerous ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound; Sandbox Percussion; Yale Camerata; yMusic; the Chiara, American, Blair, and Telegraph Quartets; and in festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, Cooperstown, and Bowdoin. Orchestral performances include the Seattle, Vermont, Virginia, East Texas, Lincoln (NE), Meridian (MS), New Haven, Greater Bridgeport, Oradea (Romania) and Saint Petersburg (Russia) symphonies, as well as conservatory orchestras of Oberlin, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, Toronto, and Singapore. Sirota’s liturgical works include three major commissions for the American Guild of Organists: In the Fullness of Time, a concerto for organ and orchestra, Mass for chorus, organ and percussion, and Apparitions for organ and string quartet, as well as works for solo organ, organ and cello, organ and piano, and several hymns.

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo

Recent highlights include the music for Rising, an evening-length dance collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance, and the Neave Trio; A Migrant’s Dream, a choral work commissioned by Judith Clurman for Essential Voices USA; the world premiere performances of Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall commissioned by the Naumburg Foundation for the Telegraph Quartet; his fourth string quartet Contrapassos, with libretto by Stevan Cavalier, commissioned by the Sierra Chamber Society for the Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer; Immigrant Songs, scored for choir, soloists, organ, recorder, chalumeau, oud, kanun, harp, and frame drum, commissioned for and premiered at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; Luminous Bodies for yMusic and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, commissioned for and premiered at the Sarasota Music Festival; Hafez Songs, a Palladium Musicum commission for soprano, baritone, flute, oud, cello and piano, premiered at Newport Art Museum; and his Cello Sonata No. 2, commissioned and premiered by cellist Benjamin Larsen and pianist Hyungjin Choi. Sirota’s arrangements of songs for Paul Simon and yMusic were performed on Simon’s farewell tour, including an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In the summer of 2021, Sirota inaugurated Muzzy Ridge Concerts, a series of intimate performances by world-class musicians presented in his studio in Searsmont, Maine. Celebrating its fifth season in 2025, the concerts have become highly anticipated and frequently sold-out events.

Sirota’s passion as an educator is reflected in his schedule of university seminars and residencies, most recently at schools such as the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Samford University, Carnegie Mellon University, Peabody Institute, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and New World School of the Arts at Miami Dade College. He also created and curated Bridging the Gap, a series of concerts at National Sawdust that explored the student/teacher and mentor/mentee relationships between generations of composers.

Sirota is recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice and Gasparo labels and his discography grows and diversifies with his composition Family Portraits for cello and piano, on the Fischer Duo’s album 2020 Visions (Navona Records, 2022); his arrangements appear on Paul Simon’s two most recent records, In The Blue Light (Legacy Recordings, 2018), and Seven Psalms (Owl Records, 2023); Elegy for a Lost World on violist Jonah Sirota’s debut solo album, Strong Sad (National Sawdust Tracks, 2018); Sirota’s second string quartet, American Pilgrimage, on American String Quartet’s American Romantics (independently released, 2018); and Diners, on the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet’s New York Rising (ClasSax, 2019).

Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, the United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Hal Leonard, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

A native New Yorker, Sirota’s earliest compositional training began at the Juilliard School; he received his bachelor’s degree in piano and composition from the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Wood and Richard Hoffman. A Thomas J. Watson Fellowship allowed him to study and concertize in Paris, where his principal teacher was Nadia Boulanger. Returning to America, Sirota earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, studying with Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner.

Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.

Sirota divides his time between New York and his home in Searsmont, Maine, with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. For the Sirotas, music is a family affair. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their two children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.