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Edward Diemente was born in Rhode Island in 1923 and received musical training from Boston University, Hartt College of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His principal teacher was composer Isadore Freed who was a pupil of Vincent D'Indy (who was a pupil of Cesar Franck).
Diemente is presently Professor Emeritus of the University of Hartford where he taught at the Hartt School for over forty years. He was also Organist and Music Director at churches in the Hartford area including the Cathedral of St. Joseph.
The composer's varied musical background, which includes church music, gave him experience in polyphonic music and Gregorian chant. This combined background, with a deep passion for the music of the past, an expanded vocabulary of twentieth century music gained from years of directing the electronic music studio at Hartt, and a love for jazz from his teen years, can be heard in his compositions.
For Diemente, it comes down to this. Is the composer’s music engaging? Is the audience caught up by what it hears? Will they leave the concert hall with a memory of something that has touched their humanity?
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