Dr. Peter Nocella is a highly regarded composer, violist, conductor, and educator, whose work has been performed nationally and in Europe. Peter 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. Interestingly, Peter has four cousins who are also musicians, including the well known Philadelphia composer and educator, Joseph Nocella.
Peter studied composition with Michael White of The Juilliard School as well as with Clifford Taylor and Robert P. Morgan at Temple University. He also participated in postgraduate composition seminars with Vincent Persichetti and George Rochberg, and as a Tanglewood Fellow, attended seminars with Roger Sessions. Peter 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 American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet, Pennsylvania Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, Philadelphia Composers’ Alliance, Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, The Commission Project, The Cherry Hill Mayor’s Fund, trumpeter John Thyhsen, Nittany Mountain Arts Festival, Stockton Chamber Players, Le Nouveau Ensemble, as well as Philadelphia Orchestra members, harpist Edna Phillips and percussionist 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. In 1974, Peter conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in the premier and subsequent tour of his work, Olympiad XXII. 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, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philly Pops Orchestra, Royal Ballet Company, Pennsylvania Ballet Company, Opera Company of Philadelphia, 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. A versatile artist, Peter has also performed, recorded, and toured with such popular artists as Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Johnny Mathis, Smokey Robinson, and many others. He plays on a viola made by Sergio Peresson in 1972.
For fifteen years (1974-89) Peter composed and arranged scores for such ballet companies as the American Ballet Theater with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pennsylvania Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and the Swedish State Theater Ballet in Malmo, among others. Other notable choreographers for whom Peter has created musical scores, besides Baryshnikov, include Benjamin Harkarvy, Jean-Paul Comelin, Peter Anastos, Robert Weiss, and Lar Lubavitch.
In the 1990′s Peter composed, among other works, The Green Violinist, a violin concerto 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. 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 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, for the 75th anniversary of the American Swedish Historical Museum, he was commissioned to compose Eight Candles in the Darkness, premiered by renowned American soprano Cristina Nassiff. In 2003, Peter was commissioned to compose Rose Tree Concerto by The Commissioning Project of Rochester, New York. In 2005-7, Peter composed Puoquessing Violas for 4 violas, two orchestral tone poems: War Prelude and The Romance of My Viola, and completely revised String Quartet No.1 in Blue. After completing a commission by the Nazareth Chorale, Psalm 98, in 2008, he then in 2009-10, completed his Symphony No.2 and Symphony No.3. In 2011, Peter completed String Quartet No.2 in Red, scheduled for premier by the Meiravi Quartet in the 2011-2012 concert season. Presently, He is working on String Quartet No.3 in Green, also slated for premier by the Meiravi Quartet in their 2012-2013 season.
Peter is a member of the American Society of Composers and Publishers, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, American Federation of Musicians, Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and the College Music Society. Because of the ongoing difficulties that arts organizations face, Peter has recently established the Nocella Music Foundation, a non-profit supporting classical and jazz live performance and creation, music education, and music scholarships. As a violist, Peter is currently performing with the Meiravi String Quartet. He is a senior lecturer at Penn State University and Nazareth Academy, while still maintaining an active composing and performing schedule.