Argento, Dominick
Dominick Argento was born on October 27, 1927, in York, Pennsylvania, to Sicilian immigrants. He began his musical education at the age of 15, teaching himself piano and theory. After serving as a cryptographer in the U.S. Army, Argento pursued studies in piano and composition, earning his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He later received his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music. Argento’s career took off with Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, allowing him to study in Italy and complete his first opera, “Colonel Jonathan the Saint.” He became music director of Hilltop Opera in Baltimore and taught theory and composition at the Eastman School. Argento joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1958, where he taught until 1997 and later held the rank of Professor Emeritus. His compositions include operas, song cycles, orchestral works, and choral pieces, with “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf” winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. Argento’s work is characterized by a blend of tonal and atonal elements, often incorporating twelve-tone technique.
