Works performed by Earplay:

Sappho Fragments
Songs of Majnūn Leyla

Richard Aldag is an American-born composer, educator, and arts administrator. Aldag's compositional style can be loosely described as Neo-Expressionism, combining lyricism with rhythmic energy in a post-tonal context that is complex, yet accessible at the same time. Influences include the music of Roger Sessions, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Ralph Shapey. He has received commissions from such diverse entities the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Queens Symphony's Sounds from the Left Bank, Trio Versailles, Earplay, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, cellist Zuill Bailey, and Chamber Music San Francisco (for Calefax). Aldag has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Sitka Summer Music Festival (2014) and the El Paso Pro Music Chamber Music Festival (2015). His 2018 CD on Albany Records, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, has received universal critical acclaim, with one work on the CD—Nocturne & Dance—making the long-list for a potential Grammy award.

Aldag has served on the faculties of San Francisco State University, San Jose State University School of Music and Dance, Pacific Union College, the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College, Fordham University, and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He served as a special lecturer in music composition and contemporary American music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1991 and 1992. He currently serves as Executive Director of San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.