Award-winning composer and pianist John Musto is regarded as one of the most versatile musicians before the public today. His richly allusive and eclectic style wedded to an exacting compositional technique has won him critical and audience acclaim throughout the world.
Mr. Musto was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore. He has also garnered two Emmys and two CINE Awards for his scores written for television. In 2000 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship at Bellagio, Italy. Mr. Musto has been featured on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Composer Portrait series at Columbia’s Miller Theater.
“A masterpiece was born…” was the reaction of the Washington Post to the premiere of his first opera, Volpone, which opened at the Wolftrap Opera Company in March. His latest song cycle Penelope “made a grand vocal effect…” exclaimed Anthony Tommasini after its premiere at the 92nd Street Y, and his Trio for violin, cello and piano, premiered by the Ahn Trio, was hailed as “attractive, songful and beautifully written for the medium” by Times critic Paul Griffiths. Mr. Musto’s dazzling Passacaglia for large orchestra was enthusiastically received at its premiere by the Dallas Symphony this past January.
Recent commissions have included Carnegie Hall, Chanticleer, the Metropolitan Museum, the Vail Valley Music Festival, the Miller Theater, and the Marylin Horne Foundation.
John Musto has been a visiting professor at Brooklyn College and is a frequent guest lecturer at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. As a pianist, Mr. Musto has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch The Milken Archive, CRI and EMI, and his compositions have been recorded for Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, MusicMasters, Innova, Channel Classics, Albany Records and New World Records. He is published by Peermusic Classical, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019 ClassicalNY@peermusic.com