The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced its 2022 music award winners, including this year’s Virgil Thomson Award recipient, Justin Dello Joio.
Justin Dello Joio, born in New York City, is descended from seven generations of composers in the Dello Joio family. He began piano at age 5, studying with pianists Constance Keene and Mieczeslav Munz, began composing at age 6, winning a scholarship to the Juilliard Pre College at age 7. At age 12, he began studying with composer, Ellen Taafe Zwilich and in high school, with Hall Overton and jazz pianist Roland Hanna. He finished his formal training at the Juilliard School, receiving an annual composition award, while completing a B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees in composition, studying with Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions, and David Diamond.
Dello Joio, currently published by Theodore Presser Co. and G. Schirmer, has composed orchestral, chamber, vocal, opera, and solo works, as well as music for chamber orchestra, and his work has been heard in the US, Europe, Taiwan and Korea. He has been the recipient of several awards: three from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, including their Award in Music, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, Aaron Copland Recording Foundation, NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, 2 Meet the Composer grants, The American Music Center CAP award, and the Theodore Presser Foundation. On October 31, 2007, The Classical Recording Foundation awarded him their Composer of the Year Award at Weill /Carnegie Hall.
Endowed by the Virgil Thomson Foundation and administered by the Academy, the Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music recognizes an American composer of vocal works and has been awarded biennially since 2014. The award was established to honor Thomson, who was elected to the Academy in 1948 where he actively served on committees, as Treasurer, and delivered the 1960 Blashfield address.
The full list of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2022 music awards can be found at the link below. For more about Justin Dello Joio, visit his website here.
American Academy of Arts and Letters 2022 Music Awards
Photo by Kristin Lodoen Linder.