Ricky Ian Gordon
| Ricky Ian Gordon | |
|---|---|
Ricky Ian Gordon
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ricky Ian Gordon |
| Born |
May 15, 1956 Oceanside, New York, United States |
| Origin |
 New York City, United States |
| Genres | Musical theatre, Opera |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, lyricist |
| Years active | 1956–present |
| Website | www |
Ricky Ian Gordon (born May 15, 1956) is an American composer of art song, opera and musical theatre.
Gordon was born in Oceanside, New York. He was raised by his mother, Eve, and father, Sam, and he grew up on Long Island with his three sisters, Susan, Lorraine and Sheila. Donald Katz based his book, Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America, on Gordon's family life. Gordon attended Carnegie Mellon University.
The death of his lover from AIDS inspired Dream True (1998), Orpheus and Euridice (2005) and the song cycle Green Sneakers for Baritone, String Quartet, Empty Chair and Piano (2007). He has composed several operas and had his music performed by Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Renée Fleming, Todd Palmer and others.
In 1992 Gordon set ten of Langston Hughes's poems to music for Harolyn Blackwell. In February 2007, Gordon's opera, The Grapes of Wrath, premiered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The opera was co-commissioned and co-produced by the Minnesota Opera and the Utah Symphony & Opera. In 2011 he wrote the music for Rappahannock County, a staged revue of twenty one songs about the Civil War, commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival.
In 2003, he wrote a musical based on selections from 'The Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. It was titled My Life With Albertine and featured Kelli O'Hara in her first starring role.
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