Richard Aldag holds a Ph.D. in Music from the City University of New York. Aldag has served as Executive Director of the Napa Valley Symphony; Executive Director of Lincoln Theater Napa Valley; Executive Director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Executive Director of Los Lupeños de San José and Director of the Silicon Valley Youth Conservatory at San José State University. From 2000-2006, Aldag served as a Senior Development Manager for Nancy E. Quinn Associates, a San Francisco-based fundraising and arts management consulting firm.
With more than three decades of experience as arts administrator and arts management consultant, Aldag has raised over $10 million for organizations and personal projects, has managed organizations with budgets over $5 million, and has developed and implemented strategic business plans for arts companies of varying sizes.
As a composer, Aldag’s style can be loosely described as Neo-Expressionism, combining lyricism with rhythmic energy in a post-tonal context that is complex, yet accessible at the same time. Influences include the music of Roger Sessions, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Ralph Shapey. He has received commissions from such diverse entities the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Queens Symphony’s “Sounds from the Left Bank,” Trio Versailles, Earplay, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, cellist Zuill Bailey, Chamber Music San Francisco (for Calefax), and Sierra Ensemble. Aldag has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Sitka Summer Music Festival (2014) and the El Paso Pro Music Chamber Music Festival (2015). His recent CD on Albany Records, “Broadway Boogie-Woogie,” has received universal critical acclaim.
Aldag has served on the faculties of San Francisco State University, San José State University School of Music and Dance, Pacific Union College, the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College, Fordham University, and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He served as a special lecturer in music composition and contemporary American music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1991 and 1992.
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