Michael Dellaira

Michael Dellaira (born August 5, 1949) is a composer of classical music. He is a citizen of the United States and Italy and resides in New York City with his wife, the writer Brenda Wineapple.

Dellaira was born Michael Dellario in Schenectady, New York. He legally changed his surname to Dellaira, the original family name, in 1982. He started to play the violin at the age of 8, the clarinet at 12, and in high school became a drummer and lead singer in local rock bands. He enrolled in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service but graduated in 1971 with a B.A. in Philosophy. During these years he learned to play acoustic guitar, performing often in coffee-houses. At The George Washington University he studied composition with Robert Parris and conducting with George Steiner. After receiving his Master of Music degree in 1973, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Alexandria Symphony. A year later he went to Princeton University, where he studied with Milton Babbitt, Edward T. Cone and Paul Lansky, receiving both an M.F.A and Ph.D. in Composition. He spent two summers in residence at The Composers Conference working with Roger Sessions and Mario Davidovsky. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1977, Dellaira studied in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi at the Academy of Santa Cecilia and in Siena with Franco Donatoni at the Chigiana Academy.

Dellaira has been a recipient of an ASCAP Morton Gould award, a Jerome Commission from the American Composers Forum, and grants from the American Music Center, Cary Trust, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and New Jersey Arts Council. He has taught electronic and computer music in the summer programs at Princeton University, and has been on the music faculties of The George Washington University and Union College. While at Union, Dellaira was also keyboardist and songwriter for the rock group Annette. Their 1982 EP, Annette, was listed as a Billboard Magazine "Top Album Pick."

In 1989 Dellaira was elected Vice President of the American Composers Alliance, the oldest composer's service organization in the U.S, a position he held until 2000.

Dellaira's 1995 orchestral tone poem Three Rivers was a turning point in his compositional style and voice; in this piece, based on his solo guitar music from the 60's, Dellaira now sought ""the sense of improvisation which occurred when this music flowed freely from heart to fingers, unimpeded by matters of style, theory, or criticism."

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