Complete Works for Piano, Vol. 1

Debra Torok is the recognized authority on Dello Joio's piano music. She has talked extensively with the composer on how his music should be performed and is currently compiling and editing Dello Joio's complete piano music. Dello Joio's distinguished musical career began at the age of fourteen when he became a church Organist and choir director of the Star of the Sea Church on City Island, New York. A descendant of Italian church Organists, he was born on January 24, 1913 in New York. His father was an Organist, pianist, singer and vocal coach. Dello Joio recalls that his father was working with singers from the Metropolitan Opera who used to arrive in their Rolls Royces, and that his childhood was surrounded with musicians and music in his home. In 1939, he was accepted as a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he studied with Bernard Wagenaar. In 1941, he went to study with Paul Hindemith who told him that "your music is lyrical by nature, don't ever forget that." In the latter part of the forties, Dello Joio was considered one of America's leading composers and by the fifties had gained international recognition. He won the Pulitzer in 1957 for his Meditations on Ecclesiastes and an Emmy Award for his music for the television special Scenes from the Louvre. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Mannes College of Music, and was Professor of Music and Dean of the Fine and Applied Arts School of Boston University. From 1959 to 1973, he directed the Ford Foundation's Contemporary Music Project. In 1999, at the age of 86, he continues to compose with no signs of retiring. He is frequently being commissioned, as his music remains in constant demand. There is some wonderful music on this disc.