Justin Norman Dello Joio

New York-born composer Justin Dello Joio is the seventh generation of composer in the Dello Joio family and is currently the Faculty Composer-in-Residence.

Dello Joio’s music, including symphonic, opera, chamber, and solo works, has been performed and commissioned by some of the leading performers in the music world. The Boston Symphony and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France commissioned a piano concerto, Oceans Apart, for the legendary pianist Garrick Ohlsson, that premiered with Alan Gilbert conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall in 2023. Mr. Ohlsson has performed and recorded his solo piano music for Bridge Records. His one act opera, Blue Mountain, was commissioned, premiered, and recorded in Oslo, Norway, by Det Norske Blasensemble, and released on Bridge Records and received its U.S. premiere at the University of Connecticut. The Barlow Foundation commissioned a work for NY Philharmonic Principal Cellist Carter Brey. He has been performed, and/or commissioned, or recorded by the Detroit Symphony, The Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, The American Brass Quintet, violinist Ani Kevafian, cellists Jay Campbell, John Popham, Julian Schwarz, pianists Jeremy Denk, Christopher O’Riley, William Wolfram, Mika Sasaki, Meral Guneyman, Molly Morkowski, and Steven Gosling, among many others.

His most recent commissions include the Koussevitsky Foundation/ Library of Congress, and the American Brass Quintet. His works are published by The Theodore Presser Company, E.B. Marks Music, Hal Leonard, and G. Schirmer, and his recordings are released on Bridge Records.

Dello Joio was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and was honored with four American Academy of Arts and Letters: the Virgil Thompson Award for Vocal Music ($40,000),  The Award in Music, the Lakond Award and The Charles Ives Scholarship. He was named Composer of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation. In 2013, his cello work Due Per Due, was awarded the Ettelson Chamber Music Award by Composers, Inc. He received the American Prize for both Chamber Music and for Opera, and awards and grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, CAPS  Grant, The New York State Council on the Arts, 3 Meet the Composer Grants, The Presser Foundation, The Lado Award, The Alexander Gretchaninoff Award (String Quartet #1), and The Marion Freschl Award. In May 2013, Dello Joio was awarded The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Teaching Excellence Award by the Dean of the School.

The press has written of his recent work, “a beautiful, fast-moving dazzler” (The New York Times); Dello Joio’s writing for orchestra is fascinating and highly resourceful, with a vast palette of percussion, airy whispering string figurations, and ear-catching textures achieved through purposefully non-synchronized effects in the brass and elsewhere. (The Boston Globe) “just over 19 uninterrupted minutes of idiomatic piano-writing and immensely resourceful orchestration. (Grammaphone Magazine) “profusely imaginative, the clarity and wit of his writing is delightful.” (San Francisco Chronicle); “It is wholly original in sound. (The Washington Post) “ Dello Joio’s scoring consistently holds the imagination. Oceans Apart fairly brims with captivating sounds: ominous percussive rumblings; eerie, stratospheric string lines; unsettling, muted brass swells among them. (The Classical Review) “Exquisite new music...The music is gorgeous." (Grammophone Magazine); “His melodies sing." (NY Times); “a distinctive personality” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer); “utterly compelling” (International Record Review); "has an emotional heart of significant power” (The Palm Beach Daily News); “Amazingly colorful and nuanced in orchestration, moving, and emotional, this is opera done right!” (Sequenza 21)

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 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 Witold Lutoslawski described Dello Joio as “an extremely talented and gifted composer.”

Composer Ned Rorem wrote, "Of the hundreds of composers I know, he is perhaps the most natural. He writes what he wants. His music speaks.”

Dello Joio began piano at age 5, studying with Mieczyslaw Munz, Constance Keene, and Jazz piano with Sir Roland Hanna, and George Russell. He began composition studies at age 7, first with Ellen Zwilich, and Hall Overton, and later receiving a Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate in composition at Juilliard, working with composers Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions, and David Diamond.

Coursework

Dr. Dello Joio teaches Advanced Orchestration at NYU and all the orchestration classes at The Juilliard School. He has originated a number of courses for the music department at NYU that are included in the curriculum offerings, including: Compositional Process in the Symphony, Opera in the 20th-21st Centuries, Orchestral Music: 1950 to the Present, The 19th Century Sonata.