Romeo Cascarino (September 28, 1922 – January 8, 2002) was an American composer of classical music. Cascarino was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

on September 28, 1922 and died in Norristown, Pennsylvania on January 8, 2002. He graduated from

South Philadelphia High School South Philadelphia High School is a public secondary high school located in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of South Philadelphia, at the intersection of Broad Street and Snyder Avenue. The school serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of t ...

in June 1941. He served for many years as professor of music at the (now-defunct)

Combs College of Music Combs College of Music was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1885 as Combs Broad Street Conservatory of Music by Gilbert Raynolds Combs, celebrated pianist, organist and composer. The faculty included famous musicians such ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He received two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1948 and 1949). His music is generally tonal, and his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

is the opera ''

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

'', whose life had fascinated Cascarino since childhood. The opera took him nearly 25 years to compose (from 1950 to 1975), and it was premiered in 1982 at the Academy of Music in

with John Cheek of the Metropolitan Opera in the title role. CDs of his music have been released on Naxos featuring his Orchestral and Chamber Works with JoAnn Falletta conducting; 'Blades of Grass', for English Horn and String Orchestra was recorded on Innova with Orchestra 2001 conducted by James Freeman. His works have been played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic of London and the Nord Deutsches Symphony. His ballets ''Pygmalion'' and ''Prospice'' were mounted in Philadelphia and New York. In 1961 he arranged and conducted ''Pieces for Piano and Orchestra'' recorded in the cine Citta studios in Rome, Italy. From 1950 to 1957, he was musical director of the Co-opera Company giving performances of rarely heard operas in English, the translations often done by Cascarino himself.

External links

Romeo Cascarino biography
from Naxos site

May 28, 1988
South Philadelphia High School Alumni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cascarino, Romeo 1922 births 2002 deaths 20th-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Musicians from Philadelphia 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians