Gordon Getty
Composer
American composer Gordon Getty has made a lifetime of contributions to the world of classical music. He was awarded the prestigious European Culture Prize in 2019 recognizing his extraordinary legacy. Learn more about the man and his music. Scroll down for highlights or explore the website.
Featured Compositions
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Opera
2 hours, including intermission (tentative)
Premieres July 2021, Festival Napa Valley
Upcoming Performances
Schubert and Strauss paired with Getty, Erickson and O’Regan
at the Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco, CA
POSTPONED UNTIL 2021
LIEDER ALIVE! is presenting Gordon Gettty's Kathie trio and Gretchen to Faust aria as part of its 9th Annual Liederabend Series.
- Heidi Moss Erickson, soprano
- Dawn Harms, violin
- Emil Miland, cello
- Ronny Michael Greenberg, piano
Goodbye, Mr. Chips World Premiere
Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center, 2277 Napa Vallejo Hwy, Napa, CA 94558
POSTPONED UNTIL 2021.
As part of it's 15th Season, Festival Napa Valley presents the world premiere of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the highly anticipated opera by acclaimed composer Gordon Getty.
News
The latest on compositions, performances, and recordings.
A Night of Love, Joy and Music in the Shadow of the Pandemic
The Young People's Chorus of New York City's 2020 Annual Gala provides warm pre-Shelter in Place memories.

Gordon Getty Receives European Culture Prize at Vienna Gala
Mr. Getty was recently awarded the European Cultural Prize, recognizing the breadth of his contributions to classical music both as a composer and as a philanthropist.
Featured Recordings
Gordon Getty’s oeuvre spans orchestral works, song cycles, and full length operas.
Featured Reviews
A complete archive of reviews of works by Gordon Getty, including performances and recordings.
Paul Corfield Godfrey, Beauty Come Dancing
In his booklet note for this release, Gordon Getty observes that he has avoided musical settings of the words of living poets apart from himself, “because I prefer to avoid disagreement.” But in the choral works in this collection he has certainly not shied away from competition with other composers who have tackled some of the same very well-known poems:
Read the full review on Music Web InternationalJeff Kaliss, Beauty Come Dancing
Gordon Getty Aims for Tunes Chopin Might Have Written
Beauty Come Dancing, on the Pentatone label, is an attractive collection that confirms Gordon Getty’s twin loves of composing for voice and making poetry into music. Even those familiar with Getty’s operatic settings of Shakespeare (Plump Jack) and Poe (Usher House) may be unaware that the composer studied English at the University of San Francisco before earning a bachelor’s degree and setting the verses of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Emily Dickinson in song. The poets assembled here range historically from Lord Byron to John Masefield to Getty himself, and the music in many aspects is as varied as the verse, unified by the composer’s self-declared affinity for 19th-century tropes of elegance and romance, and his flair for the dramatic.
Read the full review on San Francisco Classical Voice