Robert Maggio

From Wind Repertory Project
Robert Maggio

Biography

Robert Maggio (b. 8 January 1964, New Jersey) is an American educator and composer.

Dr. Maggio began the study of piano at age 7, and soon thereafter began composing. He studied music composition and theory at age 17, and graduated magna cum laude with honors in music from Yale University. He later earned master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania.

Passionate, versatile, and engaging, composer Robert Maggio embraces the collaborative and deeply communicative act of making music. Maggio is equally comfortable composing for a string quartet, chorus, wind ensemble or an orchestra, as he is collaborating on a new musical, a modern ballet, or songs and incidental music for a play.

With a firm belief that new music thrives when it takes root in an audience of passionate listeners, Maggio has been an artist in residence for school districts, arts councils, dance companies, community choirs and bands, and professional ensembles. Communities from Long Beach, California, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, have commissioned Maggio to create new compositions that reflect their history, culture and hopes for the future.

A long-time member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York City, Maggio is currently collaborating on several new musicals, including projects with writers Michael Hollinger, Matthew Hardy, Justin Warner, Kristin Maloney, and Amy Buchwald. He has composed songs and incidental music for numerous professional theaters, including productions at Yale Repertory Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. His music for theater has received several Barrymore Award nominations in Philadelphia, including his scores for The Laramie Project, The Merchant of Venice, M Butterfly, and The Outgoing Tide.

Dance companies across the United States have commissioned Maggio for new scores, including collaborations with Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet X, 10 Hairy Legs, Roxey Ballet, Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, Randy James Dance Works, and Leah Stein and Dancers. Orchestras have performed Maggio’s orchestral music across North America, including the Boston Pops, Atlanta Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and numerous university orchestras.

Maggio is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the American Composers Forum, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, ASCAP, BMI, New Music USA and Meet the Composer.

Dr. Maggio is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Music Theory, History and Composition at West Chester University’s School of Music in West Chester, PA.


Works for Winds


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