About Reinaldo
Reinaldo Moya is a Venezuelan-American composer whose rhythmically and emotionally-charged works depict the multitude of voices and influences present in the whole of the American continent today. He is the current Composer-in-Residence at the Schubert Club. He’s the recipient of the 2015 McKnight Composers Fellowship, the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer and the Aaron Copland Award from the Copland House, which led to a residency at Aaron Copland’s historic home in NY state in 2012. His String Quartet was hailed as “Admirable... reaching a climax of Shostakovichian angst” by the New York Times.
Mr. Moya grew up in Venezuela, where he was a founding member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. As a member of the violin section of the orchestra, Mr. Moya toured throughout Europe, as well as North and South America under such esteemed conductors as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel.
Moya is a graduate of The Juilliard School where he received his masters and doctorate degrees, under the tutelage of Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. He received his Bachelors in Music degree from West Virginia University, where his principal teacher was John Beall. As a participant of the John Duffy Composers Institute in 2014 (part of the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, VA) he worked closely with Libby Larsen, John Corigliano and William Bolcom. As part of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composers Institute, he was mentored by Steve Mackey.
Moya was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera to write a new opera for their Project Opera. An adaptation of Will Weaver’s best-selling book Memory Boy, the opera has a libretto by Mark Campbell and was premiered in the spring of 2016. Excerpts from his opera Generalissimo were premiered in June 2013 at Symphony Space in New York City. Other performances from Generalissimo followed in November 2013 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and at St. Olaf College in March, 2014.
His orchestral piece Siempre Lunes Siempre Marzo (Always Monday/Always March) was selected to be performed at the New Jersey Symphony’s Edward T. Cone Composers Institute in July, 2015. The piece was performed again by The Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto in January 2017. In the fall of 2016, his Passacaglia for Orchestra was chosen by the audience and the musicians of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra as the winner of the Earshot Composers Competition sponsored by the American Composers Orchestra.
He was twice awarded Honorable Mention at the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards, in 2007 for his Symphony and in 2011 for his Desbaratada la Ficción del Tiempo for violin and piano.
His music has been performed in Germany, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Australia and throughout the United States by performers such as the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the Orchestra of the National University of San Juan in Argentina, the St. Olaf Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Attacca Quartet, and members of the JACK Quartet and Alarm Will Sound. In addition to these, Moya's works have been performed by many distinguished musicians, including pianists Sean Chen, Han Chen, Michael Brown, violinists Francesca Anderegg and Sean Riley, sopranos Anna Prohaska and Susanna Philips, and mezzo-sopranos Adriana Zabala and Abigail Fischer.
Moya’s Rayuela Preludes were recorded by the pianist Yael Manor and are part of her debut album titled Elixir. A recording of Imagined Archipelagos is now available as part of Francesca Anderegg’s second album, titled Wild Cities. In her review of the album, Zoë Madonna from Q2 Music described Imagined Archipelagos as “more spacious and optimistic, with little disquiet save the arpeggiated shards that introduce the ‘imaginary birds’ of the fourth movement. In exploring the repetitions in both American minimalism and Venezuelan folk music, the piece sends four distinct impressionistic postcards. The second movement, ‘The Island with the Imaginary Moon,’ is especially breathtaking, a gently melancholy moment to stop, breathe, and look around as the earth moves under you.”
Moya has been commissioned by the Schubert Club to compose a chamber opera based on the life of the first Mexican Immigrant in Minnesota Luis Garzón. In addition to this, he is working on a new large-scale piano work for Matthew McCright.
Moya has recently is the Assistant Professor of Composition at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. He has been in the faculties of St. Olaf and Macalester Colleges, as well as in the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.