JOHN LIBERATORE
composer

John Liberatore is a composer with many interests. His music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures—“to feel pulled along at varying speeds in multiple directions, but always forward” (Cleveland Classical). His distinct compositional voice combines many styles and influences, with an emphasis on instrumental color and textural clarity.  In addition to his work as a composer, Liberatore performs as a pianist, narrator, and one the world’s few glass harmonica players.

Over the past several years, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world. He is the recipient of Fellowships from MacDowell (2017 NEA Fellow, 2020), Tanglewood, Yaddo, the Brush Creek Arts Foundation, the I-Park Artist’s Enclave, and the Millay Colony. Other notable distinctions include commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation and the American Opera Initiative, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and the Brian Israel Prize. Through a 2012 Presser Music Award, he studied in Tokyo with Jo Kondo—a mentorship that made an indelible impression on his music.

In 2015, Liberatore commissioned glass blowers G. Finkenbeiner Inc. for a new glass harmonica, becoming one of the few exponents of this rare instrument in contemporary music. So far, he has collaborated as a composer and performer with Roomful of Teeth, percussionist Daniel Druckman, soprano Jamie Jordan, and several others.
 
 In 2018, Albany Records released Line Drawings, a portrait album of Liberatore’s chamber music. The album features his recording debut on the glass harmonica (alongside Druckman and Jordan), as well as pieces for The Mivos Quartet, pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, Bent Frequency, and Duo Damiana. Other recordings of his work are available on Centaur, Innova, and Ravello record labels. In collaboration with Zohn Collective, Liberatore released a second portrait album, Catch Somewhere, with New Focus Recordings.

He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D., M.M.) and Syracuse University (B.M., summa cum laude).  Since 2015, he has taught at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as Associate Professor of Composition and Theory, having taught previously at the University of Pittsburgh—Bradford and Syracuse University.