Rocco di Pietro

Rocco Di Pietro (b.1949) is a composer who creates acoustic, electronic and multi-media concert works. He synthesizes a diverse professional and educational background in music composition with an interest in digital electro-acoustics and sampling with a diverse métier. A interdisciplinary scholar in Social History (Annales Historiography) a Habilitationist working in prisons (Prison Dirges) and a Social Worker (The Lost Project) he has turned every experience into music.

He has been an ASCAP Fellow to the The Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, and at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse Fur Neue Musik where he studied with Lukas Foss and Bruno Maderna. He has been a fellow of The MacDowell Colony, The Yaddo Colony and The Headlands Center for The Arts where he received commissions for The” What’s Next? “Festival. Grants and Recognition has come from The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, The Kittredge Fund, The Kennedy Center Awards, The Puffin Foundation, The Buffalo Foundation, The Erie County “Lift” Grant, The Ohio Arts Council, The Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Meet The Composer Grants and most recently from The Stanford Initiative for the Creative arts (SICA) award for Composer in residence at Stanford University 2009.

His works have been performed world wide by various musicians and ensembles including:Lukas Foss, Bruno Maderna, Cristobal Halffter, Christiane Edinger, Julus Eastman, Jan Williams, Yvar Mikhashoff, Frances Marie Uitti, Gunther Schuller, Robert Dick, Kathy Supove, Paul Dunkel, Dennis Russel Davies, Cristina Valdes, Anthony Miranda, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Chafe, ,Chryssie Nanou Ge Wang and Larry Marotta ,among others. Ensembles and venues include: The Berkshire Music Center Chamber Ensemble, The CETA Orchestra, The St.Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Buffalo Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, “Sonor” at the Ojai Festival, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Bavarian Radio Orchestra, The Contemporary Ensemble of Seoul South Korea, The Bang On a Can All Stars, University of Buffalo Percussion Orchestra, Earlham College String Orchestra and Chorus, Sequoia String Quartet, Stanford University Ensemble, Avant Collective, Thing NY. Roulette Experimental Intermedium, EMF, ISIM, Los Angeles sonic Odyessy, ISCM, The Flea Theatre etc.


He holds degrees in Music Composition and Social History from SUNY at Buffalo-Empire State College (BPS) (1986) and from Vermont College (MA) (1988) .He currently teaches in The Humanities in: Music, Art, Piano, Electronic Music and History at Columbus State Community College. He has also taught history and held master classes in composition at: Medaille College, Ashland College, Wilmington College, Urbana University, Earlham College, The Stockbridge School, The Ohio State University, The University of Washington at Bellingham, Florida International University, Occidental College, Mills College and Stanford University.