Robert Rocco

Robert Rocco, pianist and harpsichordist, is a native of western Pennsylvania, where he began piano studies with his mother at age five. He holds degrees in music performance from Carnegie Mellon and Yale University, where he achieved distinction in solfège and music theory. Further studies have taken him to the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, as well as to the Salzburg Mozarteum, where he earned certificates in chamber music and German Lieder accompanying. He was also a featured pianist in the 2023 session of the Barcelona Festival of Song. Currently on the faculty at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, he serves as collaborative pianist and instructor of French diction at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and is Director of Music at Beck’s Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. In addition, he is an avid ballroom dancer with achievements in cha-cha, rumba, foxtrot, bolero, Viennese waltz, and Argentine tango.

I regard singing as the portal to strong musicianship skills for all students. As a proponent of aural skills I aim to foster an appreciation of the thousand-year history of sight singing in Western music and use that as a basis for students' development as skilled listeners and interpreters of music.

Credentials

• Taught courses in French and German diction and also served as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach at Carnegie Mellon and Chatham University
• Certificate in German Lieder Accompanying, Salzburg Mozarteum
• Teachers include Daniel Pollack, Claude Frank, Jeaneane Dowis, Jean-Pierre Marty, Paul Posnak, Joan Panetti, Donald Currier and Eugene List
• Played in master classes with Boris Berman, James Tocco, Margaret Singer, Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, Gaby Casadesus and Noël Lee

Career Highlights

• Pianist for the James Galway Flute Master Class, UNCSA, 2013
• Harpsichordist, New Baroque Chamber Players
• Translator, Diction with Conviction: Singing in German, Diction Program, AIMS 
• Pianist with the Robert Page Festival Singers throughout Europe, 2001 and 2004
• Pianist in concert of chamber music by Maurice Patrick Byers, UNCSA alumnus, Merkin Concert Hall, New York City, 2003

Awards, Recognitions & Honors

• Recognized for excellence in solfège and music theory at the Yale School of Music