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frank pesci
Photo: Andrew Finden @findo
Frank Pesci (b. 1974) is a composer of “sophisticated music” (The Diapason) which "balances accessible musical lines with...a solid harmonic underpinning." (ArtsKnoxville)
His catalogue contains over 100 works for the concert stage, including fifty choral motets, eleven song cycles, twenty chamber and concert scores, and five operas. His new opera, THE STRANGERS was commissioned by the Cologne Opera (Oper Köln), and was a finalist for the Dominic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Award. In 2021, his one-act opera ROYAL FLUSH received both a collegiate workshop and professional premiere, he was commissioned to write a new work for brass and percussion for the Guerzenich Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, and he lectured as an Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2017, his opera THE SYSTEM OF SOOTHING was selected for the Fort Worth Opera "Frontiers" showcase.
Recent commission and collaborative partners include Cologne Opera, Guerzenich Orchestra Cologne, Symphony Orchestra Aachen, UNLV Opera Theatre, Marble City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, New Music Works, Boston Conservatory, Boston Opera Collaborative, the Baden State Theatre Karlsruhe, the What is Noise ensemble, Duo Velocipede, bassoonist Lorelei Dowling, Trinity Church in the City of Boston, the London Review of Books, National Book Award winning poet Terrance Hayes, and former Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich.
He performed as a choral singer and supernumerary in more than 150 performances at Cologne Opera and the Baden State Theatre in Karlsruhe, Germany. He had a twelve-year career as a professional liturgical musician, working from Mississippi to Massachusetts, and touring England and France. He held teaching positions at performing arts non-profits throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England regions, served as Associate Artistic Director of Boston Opera Collaborative, and was Executive Director of the New Hampshire Music Festival.
Born in Washington, D.C., he graduated from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Southern Mississippi, where he received the Theodore Presser Award. He studied with Luigi Zaninelli, John Heiss, and Daron Hagen.
He lives in Cologne, Germany. He blogs at 371 Chorales.