Born in Brooklyn, New York, Anthony Gatto has developed a diverse body of music, often informed by literary and visual arts, exploring alternative narrative modes and structures. His cross-media works include the music and libretto for Wise Blood, after the novel Flannery O'Connor. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Wise Blood (2015) presents the shattered war veteran Hazel Motes preaching the Church Without Christ from the hood of his car. Also commissioned by the Walker Art Center, his opera The Making of Americans (2008), based on the novel by Gertrude Stein, presents Stein's spectacular, universalist language celebrating generations of American families: "Every one whoever was or is or will be living sometime will be clearly realized by someone."

     "Radio opera" versions of both The Making of Americans and Wise Blood will be released in 2020.

     Anthony studied music privately with Ornette Coleman, and later completed a doctorate in composition at the Yale School of Music. He has received fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Scholar Program (Berlin), New York Foundation for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Inc, an ASCAP Grant to Young Composers; residencies at Yaddo, The Millay Colony for the Arts, Aaron Copland House, and the Willapa Bay Artist-in-Residence program. He is an Associate Professor of Music at City University of New York.

    Recent projects include music, A Chest of Drawers, a film written and directed by Maxwell Nalevansky, and an Official Selection at international film festivals including the 21st Annual Boston Underground Film Festival, Boston, Massachusetts, (March 2019); What the Film Festival, Toronto, Canada (March 2019); Chattanooga Film Festival, Chattanooga, Tennessee (April 2019); 15th Fantaspoa - International Fantastic Film Festival, Porte Alegre, Brazil (May 2019), Brooklyn Film Festival (June 2019), Beyond Fest, Egyptian Theater, Los Angeles (2019).

   Works-in-progress include We Dreamed of Cosmopolis and Woke Up Atomized, for string quartet, voices, and playback, featuring oratory and readings of American authors on freedom, civil rights, democracy, and the historically changing and conditional concept of beauty.