Anthony Gatto, Composer
"a spectacular fantasy... humorous and virtuosic,"
on Black Dog / Lucky Dog, The New York Times
"haunting, brilliant musical score,"
on Elijah's Wake, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., composer Anthony Gatto has developed collaborative works and concert music with a wide range of artists and ensembles in the United States and Europe, including scores and sound design for film, theater, dance and performance art. Studying improvisation and composition with Ornette Coleman in New York City was formative in his universalist concerns for sound, time and human feeling. He later studied composition with Jacob Druckman and Martin Bresnick at the Yale School of Music, where he completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2001.
Recent commissions and performances include The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (The Sheltering Sky), the Walker Art Center (The Making of Americans), the string quartet Ethel and guitarist Mark Stewart (Black Dog/Lucky Dog), the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound (Eat a Peach), the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet (Unbreak My Heart), MATA Festival 2002/guitarist Michael Nicollela (Because a Pony (for John Lennon)), the Minnesota Orchestra (Summer Hockets), and the Bakken Trio (Falling and Waving).
Gatto has received honors and awards from the Fulbright Fellowship program, the Bush, McKnight, and Jerome Foundations, Meet the Composer, Minnesota State Arts Board, an Aaron Copland Award, Yaddo residencies, and an ASCAP Grant to Young Composers. He is the founder and artistic director of The Festival Dancing in Your Head, a three-day music and media festival for commissioning emerging and established artists and juxtaposing performances of styles and ideas from around the world.
His upcoming works include compositions and sound design for a remounting of Elijah's Wake, commissioned by Michael Sommers and Open Eye Figure Theater, Fall 2009; Monster, for string quartet and sound design, commissioned by Rebecca Pappas and Dancers, premieres in Los Angeles 4/09; New Stage Work, commissioned by Ensemble Laboratorium, Winterhur, Switzerland, premieres Fall 09.
Juggler of musical sounds.