Richard Robert Rossi, Conductor/
Music Director, Countertenor

A native of Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, Richard grew up in Virginia Beach, VA, where he began to carry on a family tradition of making great music. His father, Anthony F. Rossi, studied at the Julliard School of Music and sang professionally in a number of Broadway musicals.  In fact, Anthony met his soon-to-be bride, Barbara Winfield, while the couple toured together in the Broadway production of South Pacific.

Richard did his DMA in Conducting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, he also holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in orchestral and choral conducting where he studied with Robert Page and Juan Pablo Izquierdo, a BM in music education with a concentration in piano and organ at Saint Vincent College, and a Master of Divinity at Saint Vincent Seminary. 

Richard has conducted many choirs, orchestras, operas and musical theater productions in his career.  Opera performances include Dialogue of the Carmelites and Die Fledermauswhile he resided in the Pittsburgh, PA. In the fall of ‘99, Richard was appointed the Conductor of the University of Illinois Main Stage Opera Production of The Barber of Seville by Rossini. This was the first time a graduate student received the honor of conducting an opera at the University of Illinois.

While in the Pittsburgh area, Richard was Conductor/Music Director of The Saint Vincent Camerata for ten years, and the founder and director of The Saint Vincent Camerata Chamber Orchestra, The Abbey Singers (a professional vocal sextet), The Saint Vincent College Singers, and Troubadours. Richard directed and produced many recordings at St. Vincent many that have been aired on local and national public radio.  Recordings include Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Fauré’s Requiem.

In 1999, while working on his doctorate at the University of Illinois, Richard was awarded the ALEX Award in the performing arts category from the National Alliance for Excellence from New Jersey; he was chosen as the most out-standing conducting student in America.

In addition to conducting, Richard performs professionally as a countertenor soloist.  Solo performances include the Peri/Caccini opera L’Euridice, a historical performance, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Purcell’s Ode to St. Cecilia and Come Ye Sons of Art and Orff’s Carmina Burana.  Richard has also appeared as a vocal and harpsichord soloist on WILL’s Second Sunday Concert.  In 1996 Richard, directing and singing with The Abbey Singers, performed with The Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of Marvin Hamlisch in “A Search for a Star” competition in which the ensemble won first place.  Richard also sang professionally as the countertenor soloist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Pittsburgh.  He can also be heard as one of the soloists in the recording of Leonardo Balada’s Torquemada, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Richard was one of the original founding members of the acclaimed vocal ensemble  Choragós at the University of Illinois for several years. The six-member Choragós Ensemble was formed in the Fall of 1999 at the request of the Alamire Foundation, based in Leuven, Belgium. Performances include Medieval and Renaissance Conference in Jena, Germany, including a tour in Berlin, Weimar, and several concerts in France in July 2003, the 2001 American Choral Director’s Association National Convention in San Antonio, Texas in March 2001, the American Musicological Society International Conference in Toronto, Ontario in November 2000, the Alamire Conferences held in Belgium, Tours, and Germany and the University of Illinois Krannert for the Performing Arts Summer Series. 

Presently, Richard is Director of Orchestral and Choral Activities at Eastern Illinois University where he directs the Eastern Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Symphony Chamber Orchestra, University Mixed Chorus, Concert Choir, Oratorio Society and teaches both graduate and undergraduate conducting, choral arranging, organ and voice.  In the Fall of 2006 Richard established the Sinfonia and Camerata as part of the Collegium Musicum at EIU. In addition to his work at EIU, Richard is also in his third season as the Chorus Director with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Springfield, Illinois where he has conducted the Fauré Requiem, Mozart Requiem and will be conducting this coming February the Duruflé Requiem in both Springfield and Bloomington, IL. Richard spends most summers composing or you will find him conducting the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra, Staff Vocal Ensemble and Staff Choir in Twin Lake, Michigan.

email: rrrossi@eiu.edu
phone: 581-3111