April 17: Composer Robert Sirota Releases World Premiere Recording of 212: Symphony No. 1 on Azica – Performed by Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra Conducted by George Manahan
Composer Robert Sirota Releases 212: Symphony No. 1 on April 17
on Azica Records
World Premiere Recording of Sirota’s Symphonic Work
Performed by Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by George Manahan
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“[Robert] Sirota’s compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite.”
– Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times
Robert Sirota | Manhattan School of Music | Azica Records
The world premiere recording of composer Robert Sirota’s 212: Symphony No. 1 will be released on April 17, 2026. The tenth album featuring Sirota’s music, and his first for Azica Records, 212: Symphony No. 1 is performed by Manhattan School of Music’s Symphony Orchestra led by celebrated conductor George Manahan. Over five decades, Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”
Robert Sirota composed 212: Symphony No. 1 in 2007. Of the work’s world premiere, Anthony Tomassini wrote in The New York Times, “Although the overall musical language of this score recalls the American neo-classicists, Mr. Sirota’s compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite. Thick, astringent chromatic harmonies come in tightly bound chords to create nervous sonorities. Yet the textures are always lucid; details come through.”
Named after the iconic area code, the work is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Sirota’s father, Harry Sirota, whom Robert describes as, “a truly great New Yorker.”
When starting work on the piece, Sirota came to the realization that writing music inspired by the borough of Manhattan required an extended, multi-movement work as the chosen musical form. He states in his program note that “nothing less” would suffice, going on to write, “In framing the four movements of this 25-minute work, I have tried to portray Manhattan as I have experienced it: a place of incomparable majesty, vitality, tragedy, and hope.”
Over the work’s four movements, Sirota takes listeners on a journey through the borough – the approach to Manhattan’s iconic skyline (“Approaches”); the sound and unique energy of the subway (“Do Not Hold Doors”); grief for the tragedy of September 11 (“Lamentation”); and finally, concluding with a hopeful hymn for the city (“O Manhattan”).
Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, and Blair String Quartets; the Neave, Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Commissions for Sirota@70 in honor of his 70th birthday included works for Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis & the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, and Sierra Chamber Society.
Additional recent commissions include the music for Rising, an evening-length dance collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance, and the Neave Trio; A Migrant’s Dream, a choral work commissioned by Judith Clurman for Essential Voices USA; Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave for the Naumburg Foundation; his fourth string quartet Contrapassos for the Sierra Chamber Society, Immigrant Songs for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; Luminous Bodies performed by Jeffrey Kahane and yMusic at the Sarasota Music Festival; Hafez Songs for Palladium Musicum; O Blessed Holy Trinity for choir and organ, for Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis; and his Cello Sonata No. 2, for Benjamin Larsen and Hyungjin Choi. Sirota’s arrangements of songs for Paul Simon and yMusic were performed on Simon’s farewell tour, including an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Sirota is a recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His works are recorded on Navona Records, Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Hal Leonard, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.
Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.
A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.
George Manahan has had an esteemed career embracing everything from opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary. In the 2025-26 season Manahan made his debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic. In the previous season he debuted at New Orleans Opera for Tosca and Opera Colorado for La Bohème and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Die Fledermaus.
Manahan continues his commitment to working with young musicians as Director of Orchestral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music. He is the 2012 winner of the Ditson Conductor’s Award, established in 1945 by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. It is the oldest award honoring conductors for their support of American music. Previous recipients include James Levine, Christopher Keene, Leopold Stowkowsky, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, and Alan Gilbert. He has also served as Music Director of New York City Opera, Portland Opera, and American Composers’ Orchestra.
His many appearances on television include productions of La Bohème, Lizzie Borden, and Tosca on PBS. Live from Lincoln Center’s telecast of New York City Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly under his direction won a 2007 Emmy Award. George’s wide-ranging recording activities include the premiere recording of Steve Reich’s Tehillim for ECM; recordings of Edward Thomas’s Desire Under the Elms, which was nominated for a Grammy; Joe Jackson’s Will Power; and Tobias Picker’s Emmeline. His enthusiasm for contemporary music continues today; he has conducted numerous world premieres, including Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, David Lang’s Modern Painters, Hans Werner Henze’s The English Cat, and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. As Music Director of the Richmond Symphony (VA) for twelve years, he was honored four times by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his commitment to new music.
He received his formal musical training at the Manhattan School of Music, studying conducting with Anton Coppola and George Schick, and was appointed to the faculty of the school upon his graduation, at which time The Juilliard School awarded him a fellowship as Assistant Conductor with the American Opera Center. Manahan was chosen as the Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony and he made his opera debut with the Santa Fe Opera, conducting the American premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Von Heute Auf Morgen.
212: Symphony No. 1 by Robert Sirota | Azica
George Manahan, Conductor | Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra
Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Worldwide)
212: Symphony No. 1
1. I: Approaches [6:25]
2. II: Do Not Hold Doors [3:31]
3. III: Lamentation [8:19]
4. IV: O Manhattan [7:28]
Total time [25:44]
Recorded live on October 17–18, 2024 at Neidorff – Karpati Hall, Manhattan School of Music
Produced by: Robert Sirota and Manhattan School of Music
Engineered and edited by: Dan Rorke, MSM Chief Recording Engineer, the Orto Center for Distance Learning and Recording Arts
Assistant Engineering by: Bryant Blackburn
Mastered by: Alan Bise
Graphic Design by: Monica Mussulin