Dr. Justin Dello Joio has received numerous awards, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters highest honor, the Academy Award in Music in 2004. He was also the recipient of two other awards from the Academy, the American Academy of Arts’s Lakond Award in 2000, and the Charles Ives Scholarship.

In 1998, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2006, he received a grant from the Aaron Copland Recording Foundation, and a grant from the Ditson Fund for the Bridge Records recording of his works. In December 2005, The NY State Council for the Arts awarded Dello Joio a grant towards the commissioning of a new Concerto for Piano. Other awards and grants include:

National Endowment for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
CAPS grant from the New York State Council on the Arts
3 Meet the Composer Grants
The Presser Foundation
The Lado Award
The Alexander Gretchaninoff Award (for composition for String Quartet #1)
The Marion Freschl Award
The Dmitri Mitroupolis Scholarship in Composition
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Scholarship in Composition
The Richards Rodgers Scholarship in Musical Composition

Dello Joio's compositions are currently published by G. Schirmer and Theodore Presser Co. and include orchestral, chamber, vocal, and solo works, as well as music for chamber orchestra. The Detroit Symphony and other major orchestras have performed his music in the US, and in Europe.. World famous concert pianist, Garrick Ohlsson has recorded and programmed his Sonata for Piano, and Concert Etudes at his concerts this season and in 2007. His Sonata for Piano was broadcast at its premiere at the Festival of American Arts at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and has been widely performed throughout the world. His String Quartet #1 was premiered and recorded by the Primavera String Quartet and has been performed in major cities throughout the United States.

In March 2007, a CD recording of several of his works was released on Bridge Records, with pianist, Garrick Ohlsson, performing his Sonata for Piano and Two Concert Etudes; and Music for Piano Trio/The March of Folly, performed by Ani Kavafian, violin, Carter Brey, cello, and Jeremy Denk, piano. In the 2008 spring season, Mr. Ohlsson performed his Sonata in several cities including New York City’s Town Hall and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Mr. Ohlsson also performed his Concert Etudes in several cities including Cleveland and Santa Rosa.

The world premiere of his one act opera, Blue Mountain, commissioned by Det Norske Blaseensemble, was given on October 8,9,10, 2007, at Kanonhalen in Oslo, Norway, as part of the 2007 Ultima Contemporary Music Festival. The opera was recorded in performance and the CD is released on Bridge Records in August 2008.

The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Myung Whun Chung Music Director, has commissioned Justin Dello Joio to write a Piano Concerto for pianist Garrick Ohlsson, for premiere in Paris April 2011. In addition, he recently completed a commission for a celebratory work for brass and organ, commemorating the 300th anniversary of The Trinity School in New York. This work will be premiered at New York’s Riverside Church by The American Brass Quintet and Timothy Smith, Music Director and Organist of The Riverside Church on October 4, 2008, and recorded several weeks later, for Bridge Records. He currently is writing a work for cello and piano, commissioned by the Barlow Foundation for NY Philharmonic Principal Cellist, Carter Brey. He will also commence an opera based on novelist Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, collaborating with the acclaimed poet/librettist J.D. McClatchy, in negotiation with several major opera companies.

QUOTES ON JUSTIN DELLO JOIO

Grammophone Review, Sept 07, Andrew Druckenbrod, Review Headline
"Exquisite new music... Justin Dello Joio: just the right voice.” "Building like a Mahlerian symphonic movement, the tonal implications of the minor third blossom in aching beauty. The music is gorgeous"

The International Record Review July -August 2007 issue
"Dello Joio's works are utterly compelling. The works performed here are intense, full of suffering, and Angst. A Concert Etudes entitled Momentum ...is a vital and exciting exploration of two musical ideas, which are juxtaposed and combined with huge rhythmic energy and constantly alternating metres. Equally important is the coruscating virtuosity required of the soloist, with a fantastic drive, and a headlong rush to the very end. A corpus of works in this style might provide us with an early 21st century alternative to the Ligeti Etudes... This most impressive release leaves one wanting to hear much more."

The American Record Guide July August 07 issue, Mark Lehman
"The Sonata for Piano is rigorous and tightly unified. Dello Joio has carried off the difficult feat of writing an imposing taughtly argued Sonata, replete with plenty of lyrical effusion and drama... In short, genuine music, the kind that moves listeners, that matters. I'll return often for Dello Joio's impassioned piano sonata."

NY Times, March 8, 2008, Allan Kozinn
“Mr. Dello Joio has built this piece around an arching, almost Baroque theme, and while his harmonic language edges toward prickly dissonances, the salient features of his music are thoroughly traditional. His melodies sing, and if you’re fond of Lisztian thundering basses, he offers plenty of those as well.”

San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 07, Joshua Kosman
“The clarity and wit of his writing is delightful. A splendid piano trio subtitled "The March of Folly" is the centerpiece, in which a pair of darkly comic marches alternate with sweetly lyrical writing meant to soothe the spirit; -- a terse, sharply contrasting pair of concert etudes and a profusely imaginative sonata. “

The Cleveland Dealer, Nov, 09, 2006, Donald Rosenberg
“Justin Dello Joio, son of late American composer Norman Dello Joio, exerted a distinctive personality in his Two Concert Etudes. The first, "Momentum," is a concise essay of dreamy lines and perpetual motion, while "A Farewell" broods, cascades and soars majestically.”

Audiophile Audition, August 25, 2007, Steve Ritter
“Works that show this composer a force to be reckoned with”
Justin Dello Joio is the seventh generation of composers in his family. He is the son of the late great Norman Dello Joio. Justin’s music is making quite a stir, and some big names appear to be signing on to the cause, as are any number of professional reviewers.His Two Concert Etudes are named “Momentum” and “Farewell” respectively…let me assure you that the music is quite exciting and the effects thrilling, not to mention devilishly difficult to play. The second movement dives into a pool of utter repose, as we are invited to meditate on the mysteries of loss, and on how it is manifest in music. This is quiet, pensive music that is not overbearing emotionally, but still conveys a significant amount of distress in its contemplation.
The most affecting is the masterly Sonata for Piano. This is a tightly woven, superbly crafted work that should attract many fans, especially if they happen to be devotes of Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations and Sonata. This work shows many similarities to those masterpieces in the way it beckons the listener to attentive hearing, even if the listener feels forced; the initial material is not particularly striking in and of itself, but there is something about the intervallic leaps and insistent persuasion of the melody that commands attention. The subsequent variations are consistently integrated and full of a harmonious wholeness that is most satisfying. The theme reappears in the second and last movements, presented as a starkly probed and lyrical muse in the former, while as a shifting, fleetingly quixotic sprite in the last, growing more powerful until the forceful ending. This is an outstanding piece of music.”

Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano wrote :
"Justin Dello Joio is a born composer. A real musician with a sparkling craft who has something urgent to say in his works, and the ability to say it. His recent Trio demonstrates his ability to forge a large shape that is clear and meaningful while providing subtle and remarkable details along the way. Not a note is wasted in Dello Joio's music. It is concise yet expansive, detailed yet unified, intellectual yet dramatic. In an age when so much contemporary composition seems dictated by its technologically sophisticated means, it is wonderful to hear music that is composed completely by ear, mind and heart. His knowledge and mastery give his work a distinction that many other writers lack…he is a wonderful composer whose music has lasting power - A real creative artist!”

Composer Ned Rorem
“Of the hundred composers I know, Justin Dello Joio is perhaps the most natural. He writes what he wants, not what the current market presumably demands. The result is notably opulent and romantic, yet careful and perfectly formed. His music speaks.”

Dello Joio represents the 7th generation of composers in the Dello Joio family. Born in New York City in 1955, he began piano studies at age 5 with the renowned pianist and teacher, Miecslav Munz. He began composing at age 5, and completed his formal training at the Juilliard School where he received B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees in composition. At Juilliard he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions, and David Diamond.

Dr. Dello Joio is currently Faculty Composer-in-Residence in The Department of Music and Performing Arts at New York University’s Steinhardt School.

COURSEWORK
Dr. Dello Joio has originated a number of courses for the music department at NYU, that are currently included in the curriculum offerings, including:

Opera in the 20th Century
Compositional Process in the Symphony
Orchestral Music:1950 to the Present
The 19th Century Sonata
Orchestration; 3 sections
String Writing
Winds, Brass and Percussion
Advanced Orchestration (full orchestra)