Mark Adamo (b. 1962) is an Italian American composer and librettist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While his choral works include Canticle, for the chamber choir Chanticleer, and Cantate Domino, for the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the composer’s principal work has been for the opera house: the composer and librettist of the highly-regarded Little Women, he has been the composer-in-residence for New York City Opera since 2001, and the company gave the East Coast premiere of his new opera, Lysistrata, in March-April 2006. Lysistrata, hailed as “a sumptuous love story, poised between comedy and heartbreak” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker, was David Gockley’s last commission for the Houston Grand Opera, which gave the world premiere in March 2005.

Adamo began his education at New York University, where he received the Paulette Goddard Remarque Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate achievement in playwriting. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree cum laude in composition in 1990 from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he was awarded the Theodore Presser prize for outstanding undergraduate achievement in composition. At New York City Opera, he curates the contemporary opera workshop series VOX: Showcasing American Composers. Adamo served as master artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in May 2003. He has led two acclaimed productions of his Little Women in Cleveland and Milwaukee and he has annotated programs for Stagebill, the Freer Gallery of Art, and most recently for BMG Classics. His criticism and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Stagebill, Opera News, the Star-Ledger, and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Adamo, who is openly gay, lives with his partner, composer John Corigliano in New York City.