Robert Sirota

Robert Sirota, the distinguished American composer/conductor, was appointed Manhattan School of Music’s eighth president on June 21, 2005, by the School’s board of trustees. Manhattan School of Music board chairman David A. Rahm said, “We are truly excited that Robert Sirota is joining Manhattan School of Music. Dr. Sirota is a proven leader who has achieved impressive physical and academic growth in the oldest American conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and we are delighted that he will bring to our School his energy, his insights, and his commitment to institutional advancement at every level. Along with his strong leadership and administrative skills, Robert Sirota brings the musical gifts of an accomplished composer and conductor.” With his appointment as president, he also assumes the role as a member of the School’s composition faculty.

Born in New York City, Robert Sirota pursued his early training in composition at Juilliard and received a bachelor of music degree in piano and composition from Oberlin Conservatory. After a year of study in Europe, he earned a PhD in composition at Harvard. His principal teachers include Richard Hoffmann, Joseph Wood, Earl Kim, Leon Kirchner, and Nadia Boulanger. Dr. Sirota is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Watson foundations as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and the American Music Center. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe—most recently in Moscow, Athens, Oradea (Romania), Crete, and Toulouse—as well as frequent performances in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington.

From 1995 to the present, Robert Sirota served as director of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University as well as a member of that conservatory’s composition faculty.