biography.
Andrew Desiderio is a composer, conductor, cellist, and writer based in Philadelphia, PA.
Desiderio is diverse as a composer. He has written film scores, orchestral and instrumental works, songs, and music for the theatre. In 2014, Desiderio composed four songs for an original musical about the life of Milton Hershey, which received its first performance in August 2014. In September 2016, after having been an active musician for over ten years, he put on his first full recital of original music, and had works performed between September 2013 and June 2014 with Philadelphia Composers’ Ink (of which he was a cofounder). Original compositions of his include chamber works, songs, five film scores, a set of variations for cello and piano, and a serenade for string orchestra. As a conductor, Andrew Desiderio has conducted numerous musicals, and has guest-conducted the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, the Roxborough Orchestra, and the Palladio Chamber Ensemble. From 2013 to 2014, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Delaware County Symphony. Desiderio has also spent time watching conductors while playing cello with the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra, and many pit orchestras performing the operatic and musical theatre repertoires. Desiderio’s composition teachers have included Benjamin C.S. Boyle, Justin Dello Joio, and Jeremy Gill. In 2008 he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Theory from Temple University, where he studied with Jan Krzywicki and Cynthia Folio. In addition to his conducting studies with Luis Biava at Temple, Desiderio attended the prestigious Bard College Conductors’ Institute, where he worked with Raymond Harvey, Apo Hsu, and founder Harold Farberman. Desiderio’s teaching experience has taken him from the classrooms of Temple University, where he taught courses in music history and in Shakespeare-influenced music, to the highly regarded Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music, where he has taught ear training and music theory since 2015. Desiderio has maintained a music-related blog since 2014, and as of 2017, is a reviewer for Fanfare magazine. |