Dr. Stephen Caracciolo
- First Name
Stephen
- Last Name
Caracciolo
- Professional Name
- Ensemble Name
LancasterChorale, Central Ohio's Premier Professional Chamber Choir
- Street Address 1
109 North Broad Street, Suite 100
- City
Lancaster
- State
- Zip Code
43130
- Phone Number 1
(614) 579-9594
- Email Address 1
- Facebook Link
- Youtube Link
- Personal Website Link
- Level of Professionalism
- Academic Degree/s
- Biographical Information
Stephen Caracciolo is a choral conductor recognized for his passionate artistry and creative teaching, and is a nationally known composer and arranger whose published works have been performed, recorded, and broadcast extensively throughout the United States. Dr. Caracciolo serves as Artistic Director for LancasterChorale, Central Ohio’s premier professional chamber choir. Under his direction, LancasterChorale performances have met with public praise, critical acclaim, and have been broadcast on Columbus’ WOSU Classical 101 radio. He has guest conducted at the Capital University NOW Music Festival, the Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy, Washington National Cathedral, has accepted commissions from numerous organizations, including nationally acclaimed Cantus vocal ensemble, 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. He has performed choral masterworks with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Juilliard School Orchestra, and the American Symphony under the batons of Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, and James Levine. A composer for MorningStar Publishers, ECS Publishing, Kjos Music, and Roger Dean Publishing, he is active as a clinician for various educational, ecclesiastical, and professional organizations. His compositions appear on countless professional, collegiate, and cathedral repertoire lists in the U.S. and U.K., and can be heard on nationally distributed recordings as well as syndicated radio broadcasts including the well-known Sunday program, With Heart and Voice.
Dr. 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, teaching conducting and directing the Roberts Chorale and Men’s Chorus. He holds degrees from Capital University, Westminster Choir College, and Indiana University, studying conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt, Constantina Tsolainou, James Jordan, Paul Hillier, Jan Harrington, Peter Erdei, and John Poole, former conductor of the BBC Singers. His current academic appointment is Associate Professor of Music in Choral Conducting at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) where he directs the Camerata Chamber Choir and teaches conducting, voice, and choral related courses. In addition, Dr. Caracciolo is a professional bass and a regular substitute conductor for liturgies at Washington National Cathedral.
B.M.E. Capital University
M.M. Westminster Choir College (choral conducting)
D.M. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (choral conducting)
b. 1962, Steubenville, Ohio
- Singer
- Style of Music
Classical, Ethnic/International, Religious Worship – Catholic, Religious Worship – Protestant, Other Style of Music
- Teaching Settings
College/University, Private Studio, In-home lessons, Community Settings
- Artistic Statement
LancasterChorale
Celebrated as central Ohio’s premier all-professional chamber choir, LancasterChorale has established its role as a vital force in choral music by performing challenging repertoire drawn from the rich treasury of the past, commissioning new works to inspire the American public to more fully understand its present, and supporting educational programming with young singers to promote the future of the choral arts.
Engaging the region’s leading professional vocal artists, LancasterChorale garners high praise for its beauty of tone, musical integrity, remarkable blend, and exceptional commitment to elegant text phrasing. Under the direction of nationally recognized composer Stephen Caracciolo, the ensemble performs an astonishingly wide range of choral literature including plainchant, Renaissance and Baroque motets, German-Romantic part songs, French chansons, the sacred literature of the English and Russian churches, opera choruses, carols of every variety, American folk songs and spirituals, and works by living composers. LancasterChorale performs in cities throughout Ohio and appears periodically with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.
Teaching Voice
The human voice is a wind instrument ever surrounded by a vast sea of air, and endowed in each moment of life with the inexhaustible potential for music. The question of a how to engage this compelling phenomenon and to explore its many possibilities rests with humankind and the societies it fashions for itself. Vocal artists assume a leading role in this exploration by converting this potential energy into the song that interprets the story of humanity: a narrative filled with all the passion, disappointment, angst, beauty, and wonder that is the human experience.The Choral Art
Choral music has irresistible qualities that awaken in both its singers and its hearers the urge to be creative, authentic, and purposeful in the struggle to understand this human story and appreciate the dynamic ways in which people live in community with each other. Choral singing chooses as one of its primary objectives a unity of distinct ideas as voices are joined in melody, harmony, and rhythm to create a coherent work of art. Choral music, in both creation and execution, is a metaphor for living; employing the elements of organized sound as a means to wrestle with the facts and the mysteries of human existence.
- Teaching, Mentoring or Workshop Facilitating Philosophy
Private and Group Conducting Instruction
Beginning and Intermediate conducting for all classical styles, vocal and instrumental.
Advanced instruction in choral conducting, literature, and choral pedagogy.
