GRAMMY^®-winning composer Robert Livingston Aldridge (b. 1954, Richmond, VA) has written over 60 works for orchestra, opera, music theater, dance, string quartet, solo and chamber ensembles. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan and he has received numerous fellowships and awards for his music.

His opera, Elmer Gantry, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis, with a libretto by Herschel Garfein, was given its fully staged world première by Nashville Opera in November 2007, and received rave reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Opera News. An orchestral suite from Elmer Gantry was commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and premièred on their opening season gala in September 2011, an event which received international coverage. The Naxos recording of Elmer Gantry (8.669032-33) was released in July 2011, and received two GRAMMY^® Awards in 2012: for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and for Best Engineered Classical Recording. Opera News ranked the Naxos recording of Elmer Gantry No. 1 in the Best Opera Recordings of the Year 2011. Aldridge’s music has recently been conducted by Keith Lockhart, Jeffrey Kahane, and performed by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich.

Orchestral and operatic performances of his commissioned work include the Nashville Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Santa Rosa Symphony and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.

He is currently Professor and Director of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.