Musicatlas
Music
Composer of orchestral, chamber, percussion, electronic/computer and theater music.
Life
Born in Brooklyn in 1949, composer Robert Cucinotta continues to live in the home of Walt Whitman, and the birthplace of Aaron Copland and George Gershwin. In addition, his family is restoring an early 19th century farmhouse in Roxbury, NY. Cucinotta received his undergraduate and graduate training at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College where he studied composition, electronic and computer music with Jacob Druckman, Robert Starer and Charles Dodge. As the first classical guitar major at the school, he studied performance with Pat O’Brien and pianist Paul Jacobs. Cucinotta gained recognition early in his career for his percussion and electronic music. His Triangulation for six timpani and electronic tape (1974) and The Sky is Waiting, for solo drum set (1976) have become part of the standard solo percussion repertoire.
Performances of his concert works include those by the Staten Island Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the 20th Century Consort, the guitarist David Starobin, and flutist Andrew Bolotowsky. His recent compositions include Tango quasi una fantasia, for piano (2006), Nethermead Arches, revised for clarinet and piano (2006), and Lament for string orchestra (2001). It’s About Time, for solo drum set (1998) was premiered in 2002 by percussionist Gary France in Canberra, Australia. His contributions to theater include incidental and electronic music for the Open Eye productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1997), As You Like It (1998), and Romeo and Juliet (2000). Cucinotta also composed music for the children’s play, Freddy, the King of Detectives (2004) adapted by Sandra Fenichel Asher from a book by Walter Brooks. The work has had two productions: Open Eye Theater (2004) in upstate New York and a second production in York, PA by the DreamWright Youth and Family Theater (Spring, 2006). Robert Cucinotta is published by Lang Percussion and by Nethermead Music.