Nick DiBerardino (b. 1989) concentrated in music composition at Princeton University, where he twice earned the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and was elected early to Phi Beta Kappa. Nick currently studies composition with Steve Mackey, and during his time at Princeton he also studied with Dmitri Tymoczko, Dan Trueman, and Paul Lansky. Nick’s compositional work has garnered awards from the Music Teachers’ National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs , the New York Art Ensemble, and ASCAP, and it has allowed him to study with Anna Clyne through the New York Youth Symphony, Phillip Lasser and Lane Harder through the European American Musical Alliance, and Kevin Puts and Robert Aldridge at the Brevard Music Center.

At Princeton, Nick founded the Undergraduate Composers Collective (www.princeton.edu/~compose), a collaborative group of composers dedicated to helping each other expand their musical ideas and secure performances of their work. Consistent with his belief in the transformative power of music, he also founded and directed Back in Tune, an initiative designed to provide needy students in Bridgeport, Connecticut with musical instruction and to collect, refurbish, and distribute used instruments on their behalf.

Upcoming performances of Nick's work include the second performance of The Ninth Wave, a work for wind ensemble, at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick on 3/27/11. The Princeton University Glee Club will perform his A Child Said, What is the Grass? on 4/7/11, and his Home Suite, for piano trio, will be performed professionally on 4/28/11. Nick's 27 Morningside will also be released as the soundtrack of Scholastic's Fever Crumb audiobook sometime this summer.

Nick strives to craft musical narratives that are complex and intricate but also beautiful and broadly accessible. He hopes to reach out to new audiences throughout his career, and he will always seek to spread his passion for music and to harness its powerful ability to draw communities together. Currently, Nick is preparing to head to the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue an M.Phil in composition, through which he will study with Robert Saxton.