Rocco Di Pietro was born in Buffalo, New York. He studied composition and piano at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and in New York and was a freelance composer for 20 years before earning degrees from SUNY Buffalo and Vermont College. He became an interdisciplinary adjunct professor teaching in prisons and on many college campuses throughout New York, Ohio, and California. He toured California prisons as artist-in-residence and conducted four years of interviews in Chicago with Pierre Boulez, resulting in his book, Dialogues with Boulez. At this time, Di Pietro also composed Prison Dirges I for the Kronos String Quartet.
Di Pietro’s music has been performed by many musicians in venues throughout the world, including Gunther Schuller, the Buffalo Philharmonic, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and American Academy in Rome. Recent performances of his project Lost have been featured at Dartmouth College and Stanford University. Di Pietro is a professor of electronic music and humanities courses at Columbus State College.
Portrait by Martha Burnett
