Robert Aldridge's compositions include over sixty works for orchestra, opera, music-theater, dance, string quartet, solo and chamber ensembles. Recordings of his music are available on the labels BMG, GM, Foghorn, SoundVision, Open Loop and Northeastern. His music has been performed througout the U.S., Europe and Japan, and he has received numerous fellowships and commissions.

Aldridge received a Doctorate in Composition from the Yale School of Music, a Masters Degree in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is Associate Professor at Montclair State University where he teaches composition and theory.

As both a teacher and composer, Aldridge is a staunch advocate for "audience-building." Says Aldridge, "Many of my students at Montclair State University, and remarkably, even some music majors, have never attended a professional classical music concert. I want to teach these students something about classical music, but most important, I want them to love this music, so that they will go to classical concerts and purchase classical recordings and listen to classical music on the radio. We must build our audience by communicating how great this music is, and showing our own passion for it."

Aldridge's first composition to be published by Peters is a short encore piece for violin (and piano) entitled Tango for Gabriela. He wrote this work in 1999 at the behest of his friend, violinist Boris Kucharsky, who was enamored of a young woman he had just met: Gabriela Skrabakova, a model and actress from Slovakia. Remarks Aldridge about this work: “I made these pitches [G, A, Bb, E, A, for Gabriela; Eb (Es), E, A, Bb, A for her last name] into a melodic phrase which is essentially repeated through the entire piece, as though one were saying over and over: ‘Gabriela, Gabriela...Gabriela Skrabakova.’”