Nicolas Flagello

About the composer

Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994) was born in New York City, into a very musical family. Nicolas began playing the piano at three and to compose at the age of ten. He entered the Manhattan School of Music in 1945. Upon graduating in 1950 he joined the faculty, where he remained for more than 25 years. In 1955, he won a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
As a composer, Flagello held firmly to a belief in music as a personal medium for emotional and spiritual expression. He produced a large body of work, including six operas, two symphonies, eight concertos, and numerous orchestral, choral, chamber, and vocal compositions. As a conductor, he made many recordings with the Orchestra Sinfonia di Roma and the Orchestra da Camera di Roma, focusing on repertoire from the Baroque to the 20th century. In the mid-1980s, his career was cut short by a degenerative disease, at which time a number of his works were left without orchestration. Many of these works were later orchestrated by composer and editor Anthony Sbordoni. Flagello died in New Rochelle, New York, on March 16, 1994. Since his death Flagello’s music has generated a greater following, and many of his major works have been recorded.