Thomas Pasatieri was born in New York on October 20, 1945. He was an accomplished pianist and performer by the age of ten and a composer at age fifteen. As a teenager, he studied with the renowned French teacher, Nadia Boulanger. He entered The Juilliard School at age sixteen and eventually became the school's first recipient of a doctoral degree.

Mr. Pasatieri composed and wrote the libretto for his first opera, The Trysting Place, while an undergraduate at Juilliard. His first staged opera, The Women, a one-act work based on an original story, premiered at the 1965 Aspen Festival and won the competition contest for that year. Among his 20 operas are La Divina (1966), Padrevía (1967), Black Widow (1972), The Seagull (1972), The Trial of Mary Lincoln (1972), Signor Deluso (1974), Washington Square (1976), Before Breakfast (1980), Three Sisters (1986), and his new latest works, Frau Margot and The Hotel Casablanca, which received their acclaimed premieres in 2007.

Mr. Pasatieri has composed hundreds of songs, which have been performed and recorded by such artists as Janet Baker, Jane Eaglen, Lauren Flanigan, Sheri Greenawald, Thomas Hampson, Evelyn Lear, Catherine Malfitano, Ashley Putnam, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Stewart and Shirley Verrett. They include Heloïse and Abelard (1971), Rites of Passage (1974), Three Poems of James Agee (1974), Canciones del barrio (1983), Three Sonnets from the Portuguese (1984), Sieben Lehmannlieder (Seven Lehmann Songs to texts by Lotte Lehmann) (1988), Three Poems of Oscar Wilde (1998), Letter to Warsaw (2003), Divas of a Certain Age (2006), The Daughter of Capulet, (2007) and Lady Macbeth (2007).

A prolific composer for chorus, Mr. Pasatieri's works include Permit Me Voyage (1974), The Harvest Frost (1993), Bang the Drum Loudly (1994) and Mornings Innocent (1995), which was premiered and recorded by the Los Angeles Gay Men's Chorus. Among his instrumental works are three piano sonatas, Invocation (commissioned and premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the New York Youth Symphony, 1968), Theatrepieces (1987), Concerto for Piano and Strings (1994), Sonata for Viola and Piano (1995), Quartet for Flute and Strings (1995); Sonata for Flute and Piano (1997); Windsong (recorded by the Ariana Trio, 2001), Rhapsody for Doublebass and Piano (2006), and Concerto for Harpsichord (2007).

Recordings of Mr. Pasatieri's works include The Seagull, La Divina, Signor Deluso, The Hotel Casablanca, Frau Margot, Divas of a Certain Age, The Thomas Pasatieri Songbook, and Theatrepieces, all on Albany Records. Letter to Warsaw appears on Naxos Records. Windsong was recorded by the Ariana Trio for Eroica Classical Recordings.

Mr. Pasatieri has taught composition at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. From 1980 through 1984, he held the post of Artistic Director at Atlanta Opera. In 1984, he moved to Los Angeles, where he formed his film music production company, Topaz Productions. His film orchestrations can be heard in Road to Perdition, American Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Shawshank Redemption, Fried Green Tomatoes, Legends of the Fall, and Scent of a Woman, Angels in America, among many others.

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Updated 09/02/2006
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