Robert Rocco

Robert Rocco 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 and was cited for achievement in solfège and music theory. Further studies have taken him to the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau as well as to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he earned a certificate in German Lieder accompanying. 

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

Education

M.M.Yale University

M.M.A.Yale University

B.F.A. MusicCarnegie Mellon University