Composer Raoul Pleskow was born October 12, 1931 in Vienna, Austria. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 and became a naturalized citizen in 1945. From 1950 to 1952 he attended the Julliard School of Music in New york City. In 1956 he, graduated from Queens College, where he studied composition with Karol Rathaus, earning a Bachelor of Music (BM). In 1958 he earned a Masters degree in Music (MM) at Columbia University where he studied composition with Otto Luening. In 1959 he joined the faculty of the department of music at C. W. Post College of Long Island University. There he worked together with Stefan Wolpe, then chairman of the department. Pleskow became chairman of the department of music and in 1970 became full professor; he is now retired from teaching and is composer in residence at C. W. Post College.

Pleskow has received awards from:

• The Ford Foundation (1972)
• The Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music (1972)
• The National Endowment for the Arts ((1974, 1975, 1978)
• The National Institute of Arts and Letters (1974)
• The Guggenheim Foundation (1977

• Hart Chamber Players
• Group for Contemporary Music
• Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
• Contemporary Trio
• Cleveland Philharmonic
• I. S. C. M. Ensemble
• New Music Consortium
• New Repertoire Ensemble
• New Structure Ensemble
• Light Fantastik Orchestra
• Da Capo Chamber Players
• Philadelphia Composers Forum
• Aeolian Chamber Players
• Kennedy Center Chamber Players
• Indiana University New Music Ensemble
• Pro Arte Symphony
• Santa Cruz Symphony
• Musica Viva
• Tanglewood Fesitival Orchestra
• The New York Virtuosi Orchestra
• Plainfield Orchestra
• Orchestra da Camera
• South Dakota Symphony
• Pierrot Consort
• Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players
• Queens Symphony Orchestra
• Tremont String Quartet
• Wolpe Trio
• Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

• Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center
• The Aeolian Chamber Players
• The New York Virtuosi Orchestra
• Camarata
• The North South Consonance
• The Unitarian Church of All Souls