DR. EDWARD SMALDONE, trustee

Edward Smaldone is Professor of Music Theory and Composition, and Associate Director at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, having joined the fulltime faculty in 1989.  He was also the Director of the School and Chairman of the faculty from 2002 - 2016.  

Prof. Smaldone is a graduate of Queens College (BA '78, MA '80) and holds a Ph.D in composition from the City University of New York Graduate Center (1986). His composition teachers include George Perle, Ralph Shapey, Henry Weinberg and Hugo Weisgall. He also studied Music Theory, Analysis and Music History with Sigmund Levarie, Carl Schachter, Charles Burkhart, Saul Novack, Henry Burnett, Joel Lester, Edward Lerner, and Barry Brook. He was previously on the faculty of Hofstra University, the New School and SUNY Purchase. He is a past-President of the League of Composers/ISCM.

In 2016 he was honored by his Alma mater with the John Castellini Award, given each year to a distinguished Alum.  In 2017 he was presented with a CUNY Alumni Award from the Graduate Center. He was also named the 2016 "Composer of the Year" by the Classical Recording Foundation at their annual Gala at National Sawdust, in Williamsburg.

Other awards include the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as grants and awards from ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo Corporation, the Charles Ives Center for the Arts, the Percussive Arts Society, and the American Music Center. 

His music has been performed by the Munich Radio Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, Denver Chamber Orchestra, Memphis Symphony, Queens Symphony Orchestra, Oberlin New Music Ensemble, The New York Virtuoso Singers, the Florilegeum Choir, League/ISCM Chamber Players, Peabody Camerata, Stony Brook "Premieres!" Ensemble, Oratorio Sinfonica Japan, the EOS Orchestra of Beijing, China, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and many other soloists and ensembles in the United States, Canada, China, Japan and Europe. An active composer for the dance, Prof. Smaldone has arranged music by and attributed to Pergolesi which has been performed worldwide by Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. Other collaborations have been with the Hartford Ballet and dancer-choreographer Yin Mei.

Smaldone's compositions have been recorded on the CRI, New World, Naxos, Capstone and Ablaze labels. His recent composition "The Beauty of Innuendo" was performed by orchestras in Japan, Chicago, New York, the Czech Republic and China. He is the co-author (with Perry Goldstein) of the last two revisions of "A New Approach to Sight Singing," W.W. Norton.

 Press: 

“Edward Smaldone's work The beauty of Innuendo …is reminiscent of both Sibelius and Douglas Lilburn, with its brilliant brass, high wind writing and cells of notes that gradually build into a longer phrase.
Very pleasurable and committed performances.” 
Geoff Pearce, Music and Vision, Australia, 2016 

 “The earliest works here exhibit a fetching take on East Coast style dissonance. Music from the 1990’s…a certain personal take on Americana…. a carefully considered, clearly expressed motivic tautness. This often intriguing release is worth a listen.” 
David Cleary, The New Music Connoisseur, 2003 

“...a fluent blend of jazz, American populism, New York intensity, overt Romanticism. …creating a synthesis that is harmonious and yet diverse, backed up by very impressive technique.”
Robert Carl, Fanfare, 2001