Tom Cipullo

Composer Tom Cipullo's works have been heard at major concert halls on four continents, from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, from Stockholm to LaPaz. He has received commissions from the Mirror Visions Ensemble, the Joy in Singing, Sequitur, Cantori New York, tenor Paul Sperry, mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, pianist Jeanne Golan, and the New York Festival of Song; and he has received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Copland House, the Oberpfaelzer Kuenstlerhaus (Bavaria), ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and the Jory Copying Program. The New York Times has called his music "haunting," and The Boston Globe remarked that his work "literally sparkled with wit." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has called him "an expert in writing for the voice." To honor his contributions to the American art song repertoire, the Lincoln Center Library and Joy in Singing sponsored a retrospective concert of Tom Cipullo's works at Cooper-Union's Great Hall in 2000. In 2006-07, Tom Cipullo has received an Aaron Copland Award from Copland House, and the Phyllis Wattis Prize for song composition from the San Francisco Song Festival.

Mr. Cipullo recently completed his first opera, Glory Denied. The work, after the book by journalist Tom Philpott, is based on the true story of America's longest-held prisoner of war. The piece was premiered by the Brooklyn College Opera Theater in 2007 and will have its professional premiere by the Remarkable Theater Brigade in New York in June 2008. Writing for The New York Times, Anne Midgette said of the work: "It is tonal, melting into aching lushness,Épropelled by driving Bernstein-like syncopations, with a bite to its harmonies where different versions of the same truth converge." Excerpts from Glory Denied were presented by New York City Opera at its Vox 2004 festival. In its review of that presentation, The New York Times called the piece "intriguing and unconventional," and cited the work's "teeming, hard-edged Neo-Romantic style."

Tom Cipullo received his Master's degree in composition from Boston University and his B.S. from Hofstra University, Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in music. He studied composition and orchestration with David Del Tredici, Elie Siegmeister, and Albert Tepper. Mr. Cipullo is a founding member of the Friends & Enemies of New Music, an organization that has presented more than 60 concerts featuring the music of over 175 different American composers.

Tom Cipullo's song cycles A Visit with Emily and Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House are published by Oxford University Press. His works have been recorded on the Albany, CRI, PGM, and Capstone labels.