Aldo Rafael Forte is Composer/Arranger with the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band at Langley AFB, Virginia, and Adjunct Professor of Composition at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Born in Havana, Cuba, Forte came to the United States at the age of nine. He was exposed to music at an early age by his father, a professor of mathematics and amateur classical guitarist and guitar maker. The composer spent his formative years in Huntsville, Alabama. Forte has studied composition with Ross Lee Finney, William Presser, and Robert Jager. He holds music degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Southern Mississippi. Forte has composed a variety of works ranging from chamber pieces to major compositions for band and orchestra. He has received composition fellowships from the Cintas Foundation and the Alabama State Council on the Arts as well as commissions from such groups as the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the premier tuba ensemble Symphonia, and various university bands and ensembles. His works have been performed and recorded by such diverse groups as the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the Filharmonie Bohuslav Martinu Orchestra of the Czech Republic, and by various universities and professional bands including those of The University of Georgia, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, The University of North Texas, Kansas State University, the Mobile Symphonic Pops Band, the USAF Heritage of America Band, and "The President’s Own" United States Marine Band, among others. His music has been heard at such places as Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the J.F.K. Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and at numerous music conventions including MEA conventions in Kansas, Maryland, and Virginia, and the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. In 1999 his music was performed by All-State Bands in Texas, Tennessee, and New Jersey. Forte is a member of ASCAP and is the recipient of several ASCAP Special Awards. His music is recorded on Mark Records, Bayer Records (Qualiton Imports), and Klavier Records, and others. Among the publishers of his music are TRN, Ludwig, Kjos, and Masters Music Publications.