Ricky Ian Gordon

Ricky Ian Gordon writes vocal music that spans arts songs, opera, and musical theater. In 2001, the New York Times said, "If the music of Ricky Ian Gordon had to be defined by a single quality, it would be the bursting effervescence infusing songs that blithely blur the lines between art song and the high-end Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim."

Photo: Ricky Ian Gordon, Promotional Photo, from the Official Website of Ricky Ian Gordon

Print This Page

Listen

Track:

    About

    Ricky Ian Gordon was born on May 15, 1956 in Oceanside, New York and raised on Long Island. After studying composition at Carnegie Mellon University, he settled in New York City. In 2001, Bright Eyed Joy: The Music of Ricky Ian Gordon, was presented at Lincoln Center as part of the American Songbook Series, and the New York Times said, “A composer versed in the harmonic idiom of Samuel Barber and Benjamin Britten, Mr. Gordon also has a knack for witty theatrical pastiche. Many of his lighter songs pluck vintage theatrical echoes from their 1920’s and 30’s niches and dress them up with bold chord changes that catapult them in new directions.”

    Gordon’s works for voice include Green Sneakers, a theatrical song cycle for baritone, string quartet, and empty chair, with a libretto by the composer; and Orpheus and Euridice, an hour-long song cycle in two acts that includes choreography. Other song publications are A Horse With Wings, Genius Child, Only Heaven, Finding Home, Songs for Our Time, Late Afternoon, and Too Few the Mornings Be, a cycle of eleven settings of Emily Dickinson poems, written for Renée Fleming.

    Operas include The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Autumn Valentine, The Grapes of Wrath, Morning Star, Only Heaven, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Other theatre works include My Life with Albertine, written with Richard Nelson and based on Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, Dream True, and States of Independence, written with Tina Landau, and Only Heaven, based on the works of Langston Hughes. Gordon has also written extensively for chorus and piano.

    The composer has taught master classes and composition classes across the country, and been the composer-in-residence at various festivals. Among his honors are the 2003 Alumni Merit Award for exceptional achievement and leadership from Carnegie Mellon University, the Shen Family Foundation Award, the Stephen Sondheim Award, the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theater Foundation Award, the Constance Klinsky Award, and many awards from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Music Center.

    For the most up-to-date information about Ricky Ian Gordon, please visit his website.

    rickyiangordon.com

    Related Information

    Songs

    A Horse With Wings

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    A Horse With Wings

    Song Collection

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Emily Dickinson

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    John Hollander

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Frank O’Hara

    Dorothy Parker

    Afternoon on a Hill

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Air

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Frank O’Hara

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    An Old-Fashioned Song

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    John Hollander

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Angel Wings

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Border Line

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Daybreak in Alabama

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Delinquent

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Demand

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Dream

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Dream Variations

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Drum

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Fewer Words

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Genius Child

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Song Collection

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Harlem Night Song

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    In Time of Silver Rain

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Janet Underneath the Roses

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Joy

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Just Now

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Marie Howe

    Kid in the Park

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Late Last Night

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    The Light Comes On By Itself

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Frank O’Hara

    Song Collection: Songs of Our Time

    Litany

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Luck

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    My People

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    New Moon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Night: Four Songs

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Only Heaven

    Song Collection

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed)

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Frank O’Hara

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Port Town

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Prayer

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Song For a Dark Girl

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Souvenir

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Stars

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Strange Hurt: Long Version

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Strange Hurt: Short Version

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    The Red Dress

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Dorothy Parker

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    The Spring and the Fall

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    To Be Somebody

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Troubled Woman

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    What Shall We Remember?

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    White Haired Woman

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    When Sue Wears Red

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Only Heaven

    Will There Really Be a Morning?

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: A Horse With Wings

    Winter Moon

    Ricky Ian Gordon

    Langston Hughes

    Song Collection: Genius Child: A Cycle of 10 Songs

    Recordings

    American Composers at Play

    (William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman and John Musto)

    2020

    Five Borough Songbook

    (Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Pearson Thomas and Scott Wheeler)

    2013

    Silver Rain

    (Ricky Ian Gordon)

    2012

    and flowers pick themselves

    (Ricky Ian Gordon)

    2008

    For Your Delight... - New American Art Songs

    (Chris DeBlasio, Ricky Ian Gordon, Daron Aric Hagen, Richard Hundley, John Musto and Ned Rorem)

    2002

    Orpheus & Euridice

    (Ricky Ian Gordon)

    2007

    Dreamer - A Portrait of Langston Hughes

    (Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Kurt Weill, Henry T. Burleigh, Robert Owens, John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon, Howard Swanson, Jean Berger, Erik Santos and Florence Price)

    2001

    Bright Eyed Joy

    (Ricky Ian Gordon)

    2001

    Permit Me Voyage: Songs by Americans

    (Dominick Argento, Elliott Carter, Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Hundley)

    1992

    Sheet Music

    A Horse With Wings

    Composer(s): Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song(s): Once I Was
    Sweet Song
    Afternoon on a Hill
    My Sister's New Red Hat
    A Horse with Wings
    Air
    Poem (Lana Turner has Collapsed)
    The Lake Isle of Innisfree
    The Spring and the Fall
    Souvenir
    Coyotes
    The Red Dress
    What Shall We Remember?
    Will There Really Be a Morning?
    Sycamore Trees
    Fewer Words
    The Special Picnic
    Janet Underneath the Roses
    I am a Cherry Alive
    An Old-Fashioned Song
    White Haired Woman

    Buy via Hal Leonard

    Genius Child

    Composer(s): Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song(s): 1. Winter Moon
    2. Genius Child
    3. Kid in the Park
    4. To Be Somebody
    5. Troubled Woman
    6. Strange Hurt: Long Version
    7. Strange Hurt: Short Version
    8. Prayer
    9. Border Line
    10. My People
    11. Joy

    Buy via Hal Leonard

    Only Heaven

    Composer(s): Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song(s): Harlem Night Song
    Daybreak In Alabama
    When Sue Wears Red
    Late Last Night
    Port Town
    Angel Wings
    Luck
    Delinquent
    Dream Variations
    In Time Of Silver Rain
    Song For A Dark Girl
    Drum
    Litany
    Dream
    Night: Four Songs
    Demand
    Stars

    Buy via Hal Leonard

    Songs of Our Time

    Composer(s): Ricky Ian Gordon

    Song(s): Virginia Woolf
    Friend
    Little Horse
    Spell against Sorrow
    The Light Comes on by Itself
    Pont Mirabeau
    A Poem of Unrest
    This Room
    If You Can
    Aspen Tree
    Three Floors
    The Crazy Woman
    Child
    Dreams / Feet o' Jesus

    Buy via Carl Fischer Music

    Support us and help us grow

    Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.