Alyssa Reit

Alyssa Reit is an independent composer, arranger, performer, teacher, and storyteller.

Her main body of work has been creating theatrical-musical settings of myths, classic stories, and fairy tales. Her settings have been performed at such venues as the Caramoor Center for the Arts, and NYU Steinhardt’s storytelling series, as well as throughout the US; five were featured in a critically acclaimed tour at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

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Highlights include several commissions of H.C. Andersen fairy tale settings for the New York Scandinavian Summer Music Festival, and a production based on the life and work of Botticelli (The Triumph of Love), for which she wrote, arranged and performed the music at its premiere in Italy. Alyssa’s compositions and arrangements have been played at events sponsored by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Greenwich Symphony, as well as at festivals all over the world, most recently at the Encontro International de Cordas in Brazil and the Ottawa Chamberfest in Canada.

 

As a harpist, she has performed with institutions ranging from the Orchestra of

St. Luke’s, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera, to contemporary music groups and Irish bands. In collaboration with flutist Sato Moughalian she arranged and recorded traditional Armenian folk music under the auspices of the Perspectives Ensemble (Oror). She has given concerts with John Cage, toured Europe with the legendary Martha Clarke, and traveled the U.S. playing with the world famous vocal group, Anonymous 4.
 

Alyssa was on the faculty of Hunter College and the Pre-college division of the
Manhattan School of Music for over twenty years. She currently teaches from her private studio in upper Westchester.