Peter Nocella - Biography

Dr. Peter Nocella was born into a family of musicians and composers, including his cousin, the excellent Philadelphia composer, Joseph Nocella. Dr. Nocella attended South Philadelphia High School, renowned at the time for its extensive music program. During that period he was concertmaster of the Philadelphia All-City High School Orchestra. Upon graduation, Peter won a four-year Philadelphia School Board Scholarship to University of the Arts. During his college years, Peter won a fellowship to the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. After receiving his Bachelors in Music with a double major in composition and viola, he pursued his Masters degree and Doctorate in Composition at Temple University.

Peter studied composition with Michael White of The Juilliard School, Clifford Taylor of Temple University, and Joseph Castaldo of the University of the Arts. He also participated in postgraduate composition seminars with Vincent Persichetti and George Rochberg, and as a Tanglewood Fellow, attended seminars with the then dean of American composers, Roger Sessions. He also studied viola with Leonard Mogill, Associate Principal Violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Peter’s doctoral dissertation was unique in musical academia in being simultaneously a commission by the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. The ballet, Poems of Love and the Seasons, was favorably reviewed in the New York Times, thereby, gently persuading Temple University’s Doctoral Committee of the wisdom of approving his dissertation.

As a composer, Peter has received numerous commissions from various organizations, ensembles, and artists including the 157th US Army Infantry Brigade, 307th Army Band, American Ballet Theater, Philadelphia Composers’ Alliance, Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, The Commission Project, The Cincinnati Ballet, Pennsylvania Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, Cherry Hill Mayor’s Fund, John Thyhsen, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Nittany Mountain Arts Festival, Stockton Chamber Players, Le Nouveau Ensemble, as well as two Philadelphia Orchestra members, Edna Phillips and Anthony Orlando. Likewise, he has composed music under grants from such institutions as the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Dietrich Foundation, Pennsylvania Arts Council, Penn State Dean of Arts and Architecture Fund, New Jersey Arts Council, Atlantic City Town Council, and the Swedish Heritage Foundation. Peter’s music is published by E.C. Schirmer. Inc. His music is also included in the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of the Philadelphia Free Library.

As a violist, Peter has performed with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philly Pops Orchestra, the Royal Ballet Company, the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Lyric Opera Company, and under the batons of such conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Eric Leinsdorf, Sir Adrian Boult, Aaron Copland, Sir Wilfred Pelletier, Gunther Schuller, William Smith, and Peter Nero. He plays on a viola made by Sergio Peresson in 1972.

For fifteen years (1974-89) Peter composed and arranged ballet scores for the American Ballet Theater with Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Milwaukee Ballet, the Cincinnati Ballet, and the Swedish State Theater Ballet in Malmo. Other notable choreographers with whom Peter has worked, besides Baryshnikov, include Benjamin Harkarvy, Jean-Paul Comelin, Peter Anastos, Robert Weiss, and Lars Lubavitch.

In the 1990’s Peter composed, among other works, a violin concerto, The Green Violinist, based on the art of Marc Chagall , part of which is a Holocaust memorial. His Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra was premiered in 1998 by acclaimed violist, Karen Dreyfus. During this time, he also served as Music Director of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and the Atlantic City Boys Choir. In 1998, he was a principal in establishing a scholarship for viola students at Temple University in memory of his teacher and mentor, Leonard Mogill.

More recently in 2000, Peter was commissioned by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, an international religious order, to compose Missa Brevis for premier at the Vatican during a special beatification ceremony celebrated by Pope John Paul II. In 2001, he was commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the American Swedish Historical Museum to compose Eight Candles in the Darkness, premiered by renowned American soprano Cristina Nassiff. In 2003, Peter was commissioned to compose the Rose Tree Concerto by The Commissioning Project of Rochester, New York.

Peter is a member of the American Society of Composers and Publishers, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, American Federation of Musicians, National Association of Composers-USA, Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Viola Society. Currently, Peter is working on a concerto for jazz trumpet and symphony orchestra, String Quartet # 2 (in Green), a quintet for five violas, an opera based on the life and work of Sigmund Freud, and a symphony for concert band. As a violist, Peter continues to perform regularly not only classical concerts, but also with such top popular artists as Smokey Robinson and Johnny Mathis. He is a lecturer/instructor at Penn State University and Nazareth Academy, while still maintaining an active composing and performing schedule.