In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Stephen Caracciolo Biography

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Stephen Caracciolo is a choral conductor recognized for his passionate artistry, creative teaching, and is a nationally known composer and arranger whose choral works have been performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He serves as the Artistic Director of LancasterChorale, Central Ohio's premier professional chamber choir, leading an ensemble of highly talented vocal artists skilled in performing an impressive range of choral genre including sixteenth-century polyphony, Baroque motets, German part songs, French chanson, and British and American, carols, anthems, and folksongs. LancasterChorale, long-praised for its impeccable tuning, blend, and balance, also commissions and performs new works of art.

Stephen Caracciolo has also guest conducted at the Capital University NOW Music Festival, at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy, has accepted commissions from numerous choral organizations, including Cantus, The Maryland State Boychoir, LancasterChorale, and the Columbus Chamber Singers, and was awarded the prestigious Individual Artist's Fellowship in Composition from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. In 1994 Stephen Caracciolo founded BelCanto Singers, a professional performing arts organization dedicated to chamber choral music in Columbus. Under Stephen's direction for four years, BelCanto Singers and BelCanto Soloist performances met with public praise and critical acclaim, and were frequent collaborators with Early Music In Columbus. As a choral singer, Stephen Caracciolo has performed masterworks with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Julliard School Orchestra, Indiana University Orchestra, and the American Symphony under the batons of Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Erich Kunzel, and James Levine. He performs as a professional bass at Washington National Cathedral where he also serves as a composer and substitute conductor for services.

A composer for MorningStar Music Publishers, ECS Publishing, Kjos Music, and Roger Dean Publishing, Stephen Caracciolo is active as a clinician for various educational, ecclesiastical, and professional organizations. His compositions appear on professional, collegiate, and large church repertoire lists, and can be heard on nationally distributed recordings. Cathedra of Washington National Cathedral, The National Lutheran Choir, University Concert Choir of Valparaiso, Iowa State Singers, Capital University Chapel Choir, Millikin Chamber Chorale, Northeastern College Choir, Bucknell Rooke Chapel Singers, Seattle Pacific University Choir, Marble Collegiate Church Sanctuary Choir of New York City, Schola Cantorum of Sacred Heart Church of Sacramento, and the 18th Street Singers of Washington DC are among the many American choral organizations that have performed and recorded his published works.

Stephen Caracciolo has served on the faculties of Denison University where he was coordinator of choral activities; Ohio University, conducting the Singing Men of Ohio in a rigorous schedule of concert tours and appearances; and Roberts Wesleyan College as Director of Choral Activities. His vocal coaches have included Marvin Keenze, Andreas Poulimenos, and Paul Elliot, and he studied choral conducting with leading national figures in the field, including Joseph Flummerfelt, Constantina Tsolainou, James Jordan, Paul Hillier, Jan Harrington, Peter Erdei, and John Poole, former conductor of the BBC Singers.