Rocco Di Pietro

Rocco Di Pietro is an artist whose work as composer-pianist, essayist, educator and habilitationist, has crossed multiple disciplinary boundaries.

Notable Works Biography

Rocco Di Pietro, born in Buffalo, New York in 1949. Attended the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood were he won an ASCAP Fellowship to study composition with Lukas Foss and Bruno Maderna; and where Gunther Schuller performed his Drafts (1971) for chamber ensemble by the Berkshire Music Center ensemble.

He performed his Acoustic Poems (1972) for piano, at the Creative Associates Evenings for New Music at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, May 1973, Buffalo New York; for an audience that included Morton Feldman, Lukas Foss, Julius Eastman, Lejarin Hiller and Yuji Takahashi among others. It was reviewed in the Buffalo Courier Express and in the Buffalo Evening News.

Di Pietro was commissioned by Bruno Maderna through Sheldon Soffer for a work for the Nancy Meehan Dance company. His Piece for Bruno (1974) was conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at the American Dance Festival in New London, CT. in 1974.

His Etudes for the Youths Magic Horn (1975-76) for chorus and chamber orchestra, was commissioned by Lukas Foss and conducted by Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Cooper Union in New York and reviewed in the NY Times in 1983.

Melodia Della Terra (1976) for solo violin was written for Christiane Edinger and performed by Edinger at the 92nd Street ‘Y’ in New York on June 26, 1980 and reviewed in the New York Post and the New York Times. Its first European performance was in Madrid, Spain in 1987.

His Piece for Danilo Dolci (1976) was commissioned by Leonard Holvik for Earlham College. It is for clarinet, string orchestra and chorus, and was conducted by Leonard Holvik and the Earlham College Chorus and orchestra at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1977.

His Homemade Aria (1978) for chamber orchestra was commissioned by Julius Eastman and the CETA Program and conducted by Eastman and the Ceta Orchestra at the Kitchen, in New York in 1978, as well as by Paul Dunkel at Fordham University in a program of Italian and Italian –American Music.

He performed his Aria for Piano (1978) at the Darmstadt Ferien Kurse Fur Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Germany in July 1978 where it caused a minor sensation in its re-use of tonality in Gurdjieff octaves.

Donizetti in Buffalo from ‘Two Orchestral Portraits’ (1978) was commissioned by Julius Eastman. It is for baritone voice and chamber orchestra to a text by Hart Crane and was sung by Eastman and conducted by Jeffery Lohn at La MaMa in New York 1982, it was reviewed in The New York Times.

Melodia Assoluta (1978-80) was written for Frances Marie Uitti for solo cello and was premiered by Uitti at the Conservatorio San Resertorio, Naples, Italy in 1980. Una Macchinetta Infernale (1978) was written for Frances Marie Uitti for cello, piano and magnetic tape and was played by Uitti and Yvar Mikhashoff at the American Academy in Rome, Italy, and at the De Ijsbreker in Amsterdam, Holland in 1980.

Punto Vivo (1979) for chamber orchestra, was written for Bruno Di Pietro (3 years old) first performed by Lukas Foss, the Sequoia String Quartet and ensemble ‘Sonor’ at the OJAI Festival, Ojai, California on May 23, 1980 and reviewed in the Los Angeles Times.

Bel Canto Duo (1980-81) for violin and Piano was commissioned by violinist Christiane Edinger and pianist Gerhard Pulchelt, and premiered by this duo on November 1, 1981 in Munich, Germany for the Bavarian Radio, and reviewed in the Munchen Merkur.

Aria Grande (1980-81) for violin and Wind Orchestra, was commissioned by Christiane Edinger and Bavarian Radio Orchestra conducted by Cristobal Halffter on February 25, 1983 in the Herkulessal der Residenz, Munich, Germany. It was broadcast on radio stations throughout Germany and Europe, and reviewed in the Sud Deutsch Zietung. Overture (1980-81) for orchestra of 100 percussion instruments was written for Jan Williams and performed by Williams and the University of Buffalo Percussion Ensemble at Baird Hall in 1980 and reviewed in the Buffalo Evening news.

Melodia Arcana (1980-83) for mallet percussion and tape was written for Anthony Miranda and performed at the Composers Forum Concert in New York at the DIA Foundation on December 4, 1987, and reviewed in the Village Voice. Its first European performance took place on August 25, 1988 at the American School in Paris, France by Miranda.

Melodia Nera (1980-82) for solo timpani was written for Jan Williams, and first performed at the Jetske Conservatory, Denmark, and recorded for Danish radio on March 10, 1981. Phantom Melos (1981) commissioned by Russell Link for saxophone quartet. It was written for the Amherst Saxophone quartet on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of the city of Buffalo and first performed at the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts on February 23, 1982.It was reviewed in the Buffalo Evening News.

Legende for the 13 of November (1982) for piano trio, was written for the tenth anniversary of Maderna’s death and first performed by the Seoul Contemporary Music Ensemble at the National Theater, Seoul, South Korea in 1986.

Three Popular Songs (1984) for voice, piano and percussion, was written for Juli Douglass and first performed by her with Anthony Miranda, Jan Williams, and Mary Lou Manaher, at the Dia Art Foundation in New York in 1987 and reviewed in the Village Voice.

Paragone (1985) for solo guitar was first performed by David Maglia, at the Villa Maria College in Buffalo, New York in 1986.

Three Black American Folk Songs (1987) for voice, saxophone, piano and tape. It was commissioned by Russell Link for the students of the Buffalo Arts Academy on Martin Luther King’s birthday. It was performed by Pam Smith and the Bang on a Can all Stars, at Bang on a Can Festival at the Society for Ethical Culture in New York and reviewed in the Village Voice in 1992.

Annales Sans Condition; Solo for Homeless Percussionist (1987) was written for Anthony Miranda and first performed by him at Slee Hall at the SUNY at the University of Buffalo in 1997.

He completes his first monograph, the book; A New Peasant Consciousness: Menocchio The Precursor (1988). This work is presented to Vermont College as his thesis and he is granted a Master of Arts in Music and Social History. It includes the musical works: Etudes for Menocchio (1985-87) written for Juli Douglass and first sung by her with David Maglia, Eva Botai and Mary Lou Manaher at the Erie County Public Library Auditorium, Buffalo, NY. 1987. It also included Annales For Menocchio, both after Carlo Ginzburg’s book:” The Cheese and the Worms.” Di Pietro corresponds with Natalie Zemon Davis, historian and author of” The Return of Marin Guerre,” and travels to Los Angeles to Visit Carlo Ginzburg to discuss an opera on the life of the peasant, Domenico Scandella known as Menocchio. The final work ends up transformed into an interdisciplinary gloss: opera, film, lecture, book, slides and music, presented at once or piece meal.

He begins a new chapter teaching ‘Annales’ historiography and ‘Micro-Storia’ in prisons throughout New York, (for Medaille College) Ohio,(for Ashland College and Urbana University) and California as a guest of the William James association. Emerging to the post-modern he tests himself against reality and becomes an interdisciplinary scholar in prison where he is asked to research and teach courses in Sociology, Anthropology and Abnormal Psychology, which he does for eleven years. Later he would add to this: Critical Theory, Philosophy, Musicology and Art Theory which all added up to his own form of a Cultural Studies approach. He often aimed at examining his subjects in terms of their relationship to ‘power.’ In the end he finds he has made a grinding machine in which all these influences are ground down into a fine powder and he does the same thing with sound. With Literature leading the way he finds his way back to music; which he discovers like LaDurie’s shepherd Pierre Maury, had never gone away. His destiny became a destination.

Homemade Aria with Black Melody (1991) for timpani and chamber orchestra was conducted by Timothy Russell and the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra at Weigel Hall at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio in 1993 after receiving a Greater Columbus Arts Council grant.

Prison Dirges model version A- (1993-95) for life stories, magnetic tape and TV monitor, had its first performance at the Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA. 1995. He was invited to attend a conference on the state of US prisons called:” What Next” in San Francisco after winning an Ohio Arts Council grant. He became artist in residence at the Headlands Center in 1995.

46 Injured Birds (1995) for magnetic tape was first performed on Alcatraz Island with Richard Kamler’s ‘A Table of Voices’ exhibit, Alcatraz, San Francisco, CA. 1996.

A Network of Radiation(1995) for speaker, accordion, and boom-boxes was commissioned by the Headlands Center and performed as an interactive music walk at the army barracks of the Presidio at the Headlands Center’s “Next Time Festival,” San Francisco, CA. August 1995.

While teaching in prison, he completes five years of conversation (1996-2000) in Chicago and Cleveland with Pierre Boulez. He publishes his second book: Dialogues with Boulez, (Scarecrow Press) in 2001. He wanted to ask the maestro, ‘where the new music went’? He travels to Paris to present the book to IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique Musique) and is guest lecturer on the book at the invitation of Mills College and Stanford University, in California 2002-2003. He also attends the Stockhausen Summer Course for Music, in Kurten Germany and writes an essay on his experiences there in Musician Without Notes.

Tears of Eros/ Torso Version B/ Multiple (2001) for piano and magnetic tape, was first performed by Rocco Di Pietro, piano at the Now Music Festival, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA. December 2001.

Mobile Phone Dream B with Lost (2002) for piano, celletto and electronics was first performed at a missing persons concert, by Chris Chafe, celleto and Rocco Di Pietro, piano, Goat Hall, San Francisco, CA. June 2002.

Chamber Orchestra Lost (2002) conducted by Rocco Di Pietro with the Stanford U. Ensemble at the Cantor Arts Museum, Stanford University, CA. September 2003,and by Mark Applebaum and his students at Stanford in 2004.

Prison Dirges model version B- (1993-95) for life stories, accordion and magnetic tape, was performed at the Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey Festival, Los Angeles, CA. March 2005.

Wave Fugue with Electronic Lost (2003) for piano and digital electro-acoustic sound, was performed by Rocco Di Pietro, piano at the ISCM World Music Days, Florida International University, Miami, FL. April 2005.

Solo Lost 5 with Electric Shadows (2003) for bass flute, candles and fixed media. First performed byRobert Dick at Roulette Experimental Inter-media, May 25, 2007 in New York.

Di Pietro completes his third book: The Normal Exception: Life Stories, Reflections and Dreams From Prison, which he has collected and edited over a ten year period. He documents and video tapes inmate life stories in his classes as a prison habilitationist as part of a larger musical, theatrical and ethnographic project: The Prison Dirges cycle. An interdisciplinary series of detachable diptychs with panels of text and sound and story. These movable islands of spectacle includes the book ‘The Normal Exception’ which he presents piece meal in venues from Alcatraz island, San Francisco to Roulette Experimental Inter-media, New York.

As his prison work came to an end it over lapped with another venture, and he begins his moonlighting associal worker while teaching in the Humanities as a lecturer for Columbus State College. He teaches a sequence of electronic music courses and founds an annual electronic music festival while simultaneously playing his music with both Avant-Collective and his own ensemble. It is at this time that years of research into critical theory and post-modern philosophers bears fruit in his teaching of “Music and Art Since 1940". A two CD retrospective of his works comes out in 2004: Multiples and The Lost Project and is reviewed in Fanfare magazine. His Lost Project, based on the musical monograms of lost children was his third large scale project of open ended works and made an attempt to make connections between his social work and his music. He received small grants from the Puffin Foundation for both his endeavors as a ‘social composer’.

The Lost Project is presented at Dartmouth College and Stanford University and on street corners, churches and community festivals and in New York at Roulette in 2007.

The Third Position (2004) From the Comedy of the Real-Cycle. Radio Drama for speaker,various instruments, and electro-acoustic sound. Justin Isom actor, Rocco Di Pietro speaker, David Reed sampler and Jan Williams timpani. First Broadcast by Art@radio Baltimore, New York, Helsinki and Amsterdam 2005.

Later (2004) for guitar and electronics, written for Larry Marotta, guitar, and David Reed electronics and was performed at the Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey, Los Angeles, CA. April 2006.

Three Studies for a Finale (2005) (Katrina Youth- hand bell monograms) for hand bells, accordion, el. guitar, voice and electronics was written for Hannah Corbin and performed by Corbin, Rocco Di Pietro, Larry Marotta, David Reed and Rebecca Henkel, at the COMFEST Community Festival, Goodale Park, Solar Tent, Columbus, OH. June 2006.

Post Cards From the Impossible (2006) (In Memorium Justin Isom) for reciter and guitar, with hand instruments, was written for Derek Zoladz. It was performed by Justin Isom: reciter, Derek Zoladz: guitar, at the Acme Art Co. Columbus, OH. February, 2006.

Deconstructed Fountain From Ravel With Derrida Watching (1996) was performed by Cristina Valdes piano, and Rocco Di Pietro, tape at BEAF (Bellingham Electro-Acoustic Festival) in December,2006 at the University of Bellingham, Washington.

Wind Swept Centering and Faust/ from Multiples Piano Pieces (1995) was performed by pianist Cristina Valdes at the ISCM World Music Days at Florida International University, Miami, FL. April, 2007.

Chamber Prison Dirges/Multiple (2005) for chamber ensemble, performed by Paul Pinto and thingNY, ensemble at the Yippie Museum Cafe, Greenwhich Village, New York on December 07, 2007.

Harmonic Injured Bird/Multiple (2006) for piano, life stories and tape, was first performed by Kathy Supove, piano, at Location One, Roulette Experimental Inter-media, New York City on May 25, 2007.

Caprices for Goya (2007) (Two from The Unquiet Notebook) for piano four hands and tape, performed by Kathy Supove and Rocco Di Pietro at Roulette Experimental Inter-medium, May 25, 2007 in New YorkCity.

A Turning With Frames For Pauline Oliveros (From the Comedy of the Real) (2003-2006) a digital electro-acoustic non-improvisation for instruments ,electronic sounds and erased texts with added texts by Jean Francois Lyotard recited by Rocco di Pietro, and first performed with piano at Roulette Experimental Intermedium,May,2007.

Lamps from Look (2007) (Modified Crippled Hands- Andante) for piano, lap steel guitar and Korg synthesizer, performed by Rocco Di Pietro: piano, Larry Marotta: guitar, and Derek Zoladz, synthesizer at the ISIM (International Society for Improvised Music) Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. December 15, 2007.

He gathers essays for his fourth book: Musician Without Notes, and under takes yet another large interdisciplinary cycle: The Comedy Of The Real (2003-2009). It is a series of radio dramas in the form of ‘positions’ emanating outward in a spiral. The Third Position is the first installment broadcast on radio stations in New York, Helsinki and Amsterdam through Art@Radio in Baltimore. The CD came out in 2006, and was announced in The Wire, Signal to Noise, and Fanfare magazines in 2007. ‘The Comedy’, (both human and otherwise) makes reference to La Divina Commedia, (Dante) Le Comedie Humaine (Balzac) and the consciousness studies of Julian Jaynes. It traverses his recent concerns of creating something transgressive within post-modernism, simulation and the hyper-real as well as investigating body traps and entrainment processes in trance experience. The text writing for the Fourth and Fifth Positions are complete and the narration moves from an “I “of the The Third Position with its mistakes left in, to a “He” of the Fifth Position and lastly of a neutered “It” of the in progress Sixth Position without mistakes. His also in progress Rhizome for Evelyn Glennie for percussion and real time electronics with stone instruments,( stones as drops of consciousness that contain world rhythms) and a new series of Chiaroscuros (Caravaggio, Dowland, Colombe) all present a world of authentic feeling, ”a fragment of feeling” (Scoville) within a world of “Can thought Go on Without A Body”? Hence transgressing; the encroaching robotics of the Matrix? He hopes to show that music is also a contestation in “counteracting human alienation in a world of utility.”

In 2006 he was given a grant by Columbus State College to take his students to Stanford University to participate in Chris Chafe’s sophomore college class. Derek Zoladz and Rebecca Henkel performed and presented work at Stanford and Di Pietro performed with Pauline Oliveros. He returned in 2007 with Zoladz to interview John Chowning at CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics) concerning Chowning’s new work “Voices” for soprano and computer. He was interested in asking Chowning questions on the works relationship to consciousness studies. For 2008 four new CD’s are ready to be released.

Works

*"Melodia Della Terra" (1976) for solo violin
*"Melodia Arcana" (1980-83) for percussion and magnetic tape
*"Melodia Nera" (1980) for timpani
*"Prison Dirges" (1996)
*"Etudes for Crippled Hands" (1999) for piano
*"Tears of Eros" (2000)

Discography

* [http://www.cdemusic.org/store/cde_search.cfm?keywords=rdipietrocds] Multiples/The Lost Project
* [http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/roccodipietro2] The Third Position

Awards

* [http://www.headlands.org/artist_pages.asp?key=8&artistkey=393/ Headlands Center for the Arts Fellowship (1995)]
* [http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:_FFKsR8nuQ0J:ftp://ftp.yaddo.org/Yaddo/composers.pdf+%22rocco+di+pietro%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=81&gl=us/ Yaddo Colony Fellowship (1990)]
* [http://www.macdowellcolony.org/composers.html/ The MacDowell Colony Fellowship (1989)]
* Puffin Foundation (1989)
* Meet the Composer Grants (1983-85)
* [http://www.americandancefestival.org/history/premieresCommissions.html/ American Dance Foundation (1974)]

Archives

* State University of New York at Buffalo, Baird Music Hall Library, Amherst N.Y.
* American Music Center-New York, N.Y.
* Darmstadt Ferienkurse Fur Neue Musik- Library, Darmstadt, Germany
* Mid American Center for Contemporary Music, Bowling Green, OH.
* Electro-Acoustic Society of Great Britain, London, England State University of New York at Buffalo, Baird Music Hall Library, Amherst N.Y.

Notes and References

* [http://www.21st-centurymusic.com/ML210207.pdf] cite book | last=Hixson | first=J.D. | title=Forms that Blur Boundries: An Interview with Rocco Di Pietro | publisher=21st Century Music | year=2002
* [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/1997/mayjun/lsjournal/onthejob.html] cite book | last=Hardie | first=Raymond | title=On the Job with Gail Guitierrez McDermid: Escape Through Art | publisher=Stanford Magazine
*
* [http://www.kalvos.org/dipeess1.html] cite book | last=Di Pietro | first=Rocco | title=Dialogues with Pierre Boulez | publisher=Kalvos & Damian
* [http://www.americancomposersforum.com/member_profile.cfm?oid=4613/ Biography from American Composers Forum]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E5D71539F930A25752C1A965948260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/F/Foss,%20Lukas] cite book | title=Concert: Brooklyn Orchestra in 'Meet the Moderns' Series | publisher=The New York Times | month=November | year=1983
* [http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/music/spcoll/creassrec.html/ Creative Associates Recitals: A Catalog 1964-1980]

Further reading

*cite book | last=Di Pietro | first=Rocco | title=Dialogues with Boulez | publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc | year=2001 | isbn=0810839326

External links

* [http://www.dipietroeditions.com/ Rocco Di Pietro Website]
* [http://www.dipietroeditions.com/freeyellow/updates.html/ The World of Rocco Di Pietro]
* [http://www.roulette.org/ Rocco at Roulette]
* [http://www.amc.net/composers/c_works.asp?composerid=19461&actorid=45701&bio=full/ Rocco Early Works]