Louis Calabro (November 1, 1926 – October 21, 1991) was an

Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Biography

Calabro studied

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named afte ...

Vincent Persichetti Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work ...

was his principal teacher there. Louis Calabro was a music professor at

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont, United States. Founded as a women’s college in 1932,

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

from 1955 until his death in 1991. He was a composer, teacher, conductor and a percussionist. His students included the American composer Patsy Rogers. Calabro's original music is published by Elkan-Vogel,

Theodore Presser The Theodore Presser Company is an American Music publisher (popular music), music publishing and Distribution (business), distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Br ...

, Tuba Press and Morningstar Music. Calabro has over 100 works to his credit including music for traditional and non-traditional chamber combinations as well as for both large and small orchestral ensembles most notably in

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Calabro believed in writing music for those he knew best and had the distinction of hearing virtually everything he wrote performed during his lifetime. There are many recordings of these performances as well as scores archived at Bennington College and at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

. Louis Calabro founded the Sage City Symphony in 1972, an ambitious community orchestra in southwestern Vermont which is still active and continues to commission new works. Calabro believed strongly in encouraging and promoting contemporary music, at a time when few American orchestras (professional or amateur) were performing premieres. With the

Symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

, he commissioned dozens of new orchestral works and conducted their premieres. Composers whose work was premiered under his baton include Marta Ptaszynska and

Vivian Fine Vivian Fine (28 September 1913 – 20 March 2000) was an American composer. Life Fine was born in Chicago to David and Rose Fine. A piano prodigy, she became at age five the youngest student ever to be awarded a scholarship at the Chicago Mu ...

. He was a recipient of numerous awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships and two Elizabeth Coolidge Chamber Music Awards, plus grants from the National Endowment on the Arts and the Bicentennial Commission, and the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1992).

References

External links

Louis Calabro's page at Theodore Presser Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calabro, Louis American male classical composers American people of Italian descent 20th-century American classical composers Bennington College alumni 1926 births 1991 deaths Musicians from Brooklyn People from Bennington, Vermont Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians