Gala Flagello
Gala Flagello (b. 1994) is a composer, educator, and nonprofit director whose music has been described as “both flesh and spirit, intensely psychological without sacrificing concrete musical enjoyment” (I Care If You Listen). She is the Festival Director and co-founder of the nonprofit contemporary music festival Connecticut Summerfest.
Gala was selected as a 2022 Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School and as a 2022–2023 Composer Fellow at the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. She was awarded the Musicians Club of Women Gerts and Hammond Award (First Prize, 2022 Composition Competition) and was recently commissioned by Hub New Music to write The Bird-While, a concerto for Hub New Music and symphonic winds that will be premiered by Michael Haithcock and the University of Michigan Symphony Band in 2023. Other recent commissions include works for the Albany Symphony, the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Keene State College Concert Band. Recent accolades include first prize in the 2020 Sinta Quartet Composition Competition, the 2020 Michigan Music Teachers Association Commissioned Composer Prize, and the 2021 Composer Residency at Promenade Opera Project (Boston, MA).
