Andrew (b. 1953, New York City).
Acclaimed American composer of primarily chamber, vocal and piano works that have been successfully performed throughout the USA; he is also active as a pianist.
Mr. Violette studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York from 1968-71 and there earned the Regent’s Scholarship. From 1971-75, he studied composition with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions and counterpoint with Otto Luening at the Juilliard School in New York, where he earned his BMus and MMus, as well as the Lado Prize in Composition.
His awards include seven grants from Meet the Composer (1977, 1982-87), three fellowships at the MacDowell Colony (1983-85) and fellowships at the Yaddo Arts Colony and the Virginia Center for the Arts (both 1999). From 1975-88, he was music director of both the Lutheran Church of Our Savior’s Atonement and the concert series Cornerstone Center. During the 1980s, he was music director of the Battery Dance Company, the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company and the Peggy Florin Dancers. Since 1996, he has been music director of the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope.
As a pianist, he has given numerous solo recitals of his own music, as well as new pieces by other composers. Throughout the 1980s, he played to dance classes for Robert Blanshine, Nanette Cherrise, Merce Cunningham, and Janet Panetta.
In 1975-76, he was an adjunct instructor of literature and materials of music at the Juilliard School. From 1988-94, he was a contemplative Benedictine monk at St. Mary’s Monastery in Massachusetts and from 1994-96, he was a student at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in New York.
The American Composers Alliance publishes his works from 1970-89; all later works are self-published.
Web: http://composers21.com/compdocs/violetta.htm