Joseph Prestamo

Joseph Prestamo is a composer and pianist living in New York. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Joseph is also an adjunct lecturer at the Aaron Copland School of Music, at Queens College. In 2012, he graduated with a Master of Music in Composition from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Bright Sheng and Kristin Kuster. Previously, he completed a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, where he studied piano with Morey Ritt and composition with Bruce Saylor.

His solo piano piece, Ballade, recently received the Robert Starer Award in Composition, and has been recorded on pianist Jai Jeffryes' album of new piano music, Amethyst. Prestamo’s piece, Sketches, was awarded the NFMC Student/Collegiate Composition Award as well as the first prize in music+culture's International Composition Competition. It has been recorded by pianist Brian Hanke and is available on iTunes and Amazon. Other awards include the Evelyn Marin Memorial Scholarship, the Molly Weinstein Memorial Award, the Gabriel Frontier Memorial Award, the Karol Rathaus Award, and the Presser Foundation Scholarship Award.

For more information, please visit: www.josephprestamo.com