Aldo Rafael Forte
Biography
Aldo Rafael Forte (b. 1953, Havana, Cuba) is now retired from the United States Air Force after 26 years on active duty as composer/arranger, his last assignment (16 years) having been with the USAF Heritage of America Band. He is now working as a freelance composer/arranger and is in his 14th year as Professor of Composition at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Forte is also active as a guest composer/conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.
Forte came to the United States at the age of nine. He was exposed to music at an early age by his father, a professor of mathematics and amateur classical guitarist and guitar maker. The composer spent his formative years in Huntsville, Alabama. Forte has studied composition with Ross Lee Finney, William Presser, and Robert Jager. He holds music degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Southern Mississippi.
Forte has composed a variety of works ranging from chamber pieces to major compositions for band and orchestra. He has received composition fellowships from the Cintas Foundation and the Alabama State Council on the Arts as well as commissions from such groups as the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the premier tuba ensemble Symphonia, and various university bands and ensembles. His works have been performed and recorded by such diverse groups as the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the Filharmonie Bohuslav Martinu Orchestra of the Czech Republic, and by various universities and professional bands including those of The University of Georgia, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, The University of North Texas, Kansas State University, the Mobile Symphonic Pops Band, the USAF Heritage of America Band, and "The President’s Own" United States Marine Band, among others. His music has been heard at such places as Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the J.F.K. Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and at numerous music conventions including MEA conventions in Kansas, Maryland, and Virginia, and the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. In 1999 his music was performed by all-state bands in Texas, Tennessee, and New Jersey.
Works for Winds
- Canzonetta for Euphonium and Band
- Concertino for Flute, Bassoon, and Band (2006)
- Concerto for Horn
- Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Band
- A Cup of Christmas Tea
- Dali (2003/2006)
- Dance Rhapsody for Tuba and Band (2003/2018)
- Dance Scenes
- Dance Suite on Spanish and Latin Rhythms (1999)
- Danzas Brillantes
- Don Quijote from Dali
- Elegy and Dance for Oboe and Band
- March Olympia
- Impressionist Prints (2000)
- Northwest Passages
- Olympus - Four Mythological Legends
- Pastiche - Concerto Dances for Trombone and Band
- Piedmont Celebration, A
- Port City Celebration, A
- Riddle of the Sphinx, The
- Royal Triumph March
- Savannah River Overture
- Sinfonia No. 1 for Band (2022)
- Spanish Sketches for Brass Choir
- SPIRIT - Tone Pictures after the B2 Bomber
- Symphonic Scenes from "Romeo and Juliet"
- Symphony for the Millennium (2003)
- Synergy! (1999)
- Tensegrity - An Engineer's Suite
- Thunderbirds, The
- Van Gogh Portraits (2008)
- Vestida de Luto - Draped in Mourning Black
- Vincent’s Canvases
- Weather Vanes
Resources
- Aldo Rafael Forte. Wikipedia. Accessed 2 July 2023
- Aldo Rafael Forte website
- Ellerby, Martin. Introducing - Aldo Rafael Forte Winds Magazine.