Billy Bivona graduated from the Hartt School of Music with a bachelor’s degree in Composition with a concentration of French Horn performance. He has studied composition privately with Dr. Larry Allen Smith, Dr. Tawnie Olson, and Professor Ken Steen, has studied French Horn with Susan Spalding and David Wakefield, jazz guitar with Tony Lombardozzi of Wesleyan University, and has been playing piano since the age of four. Billy’s original compositions have been performed across the state by numerous amateur, youth, collegiate, and professional groups alike. His work with voice and choir granted him a year-long residency with the West Avon Congregational Church and a premiere by the New York City based a cappella ensemble “khorikos.” He was also a semi-finalist in NoteNova Publication’s 2015 “Composers’ Composition Competition”. He has worked extensively in theater as a principal composer, orchestrator, transcriber, assistant music director, and performer on a number of productions, and worked with Tony award-winning theater director Darko Tresnjak, composer Stephen Flaherty, and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, among many others, as a part of the creative team for the world premiere of “Anastasia” at the Hartford Stage, which opened on Broadway in 2017. Billy is a member of the National Association For Music Education and has been an adjudicator for Connecticut’s annual Regional and All-State auditions since 2014. He is a substitute organist and pianist for churches in Connecticut, as well as an actively gigging guitarist and core member of the musical group/artistic collaboration “World Soul.”

Works by Billy Bivona