Reinaldo Moya

Reinaldo Moya is a graduate of Venezuela’s El Sistema music education system. He is the recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two McKnight Composers’ Fellowships, the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer and the Aaron Copland Award. He was the inaugural winner of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award.
His Piano Concerto was recently premiered by Joyce Yang and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in October 2021, to great acclaim: Bangor Daily News wrote “[The concerto] demonstrated that Moya is a composer who has much to say about the human condition in the 21st century, and should be listened to often.” His Violin Concerto Vesitda de mar was commissioned and premiered by Francesca Anderegg and has been performed by the South Dakota Symphony, the Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, the Berkshire Symphony, among others. His multimedia work “Dark Earth” included video projections by Mike Halerz, and was successfully premiered by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in 2021. It has subsequently been performed by the Butler County Symphony Orchestra and the Moravian Philharmonic, Olomouc in the Czech Republic.

He is the Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra from 2021-24, where he will compose new orchestral and chamber works and serve on the artistic board. His work Polo Romanesco was premiered at the Harris Theater for Dance in Chicago in March of 2022. Cellist Joshua Roman premiered Moya’s Rise for cello and orchestra with the Chicago Philharmonic in January of 2023.
His work Guayoyo Sketches was commissioned by Alisa Weilerstein as part of her Fragments project with performances at Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Maison Orchestre Symphonique Montreal, and throughout the US and Canada.
As the Composer-Residence at The Schubert Club in Minnesota from 2017-19, he was commissioned to write a chamber opera. This work Tienda, was hailed by the Star Tribune for its “proud individuality… [and] textures of pulsing vibrancy, subtly shading harmonies to trace the fragile emotional arc of his central characters.” His opera Memory Boy, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and premiered in 2016.
His works have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the New Jersey Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra. Other performers include the Jasper, Attacca (winners of two Grammy Awards) and Da Ponte String Quartets, the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and the Lysander Piano Trio.
He is a graduate of The Juilliard School with master’s and doctorate degrees, studying with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. Mr. Moya has taught at St. Olaf College and the Interlochen Arts Camp, and Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
He is currently Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.