Curt Cacioppo is sought after as a speaker and writer on a wide range of topics in music, from his own composition, be it influenced by Italian or Native American themes, to the piano recordings of Busoni or Romanticism and the narrative impulse.

Segerstrom Concert Hall, ACF Festival 2008

Sample lecture topics:

  • “Italy and the Muses then and now”
  • “The Romantic Continuum”
  • “Native American Music and Belief”
  • “The Sonata: a home entertainment system prototype”

His audiences range from radio listeners and TV viewers to concertgoers, professional conference attendees, and university & conservatory students to travel tour participants and school groups. To highlight briefly from the résumé:

On the Radio

  • interview on WVPR-FM Vermont Public Radio with Walter Parker, host, and pianist Paul Orgel, in April of 2003 before the performance of “Impressions of Venice” by the Quartetto di Venezia (April 7, 2003)

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  • interview on “Kultur Aktuell” Bayerische Rundfunk (Bayern 2), Munich, Germany one of the longest composer feature segments ever aired by the station – interview conducted bi-lingually in German and English on TV (December 12, 1995)

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  • program on his Pawnee Preludes recorded live at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. broadcast over WETA-FM
  • guest with ethnomusicologist David McAllester offering audience-interactive program on “Native American Music” on WYBE-TV’s Emmy-nominated “Philly Live” hosted by Ashok Gangadean
  • spokesman for the 8th annual American Composers Festival with the Pacific Symphony on KOCE-TV’s “Real Orange” in multiple airings

Speaking about “Impressions of Venice”

On stage, at the lecturn and in the classroom

  • pre-concert panelist for the Left Bank Concert Society’s “Heroic Spirit” program with fellow composer George Walker, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Washington, D.C.
  • paper entitled “La musica <<Native American>> tradizionale e di <<crossover>>: mezzi per sopravvivere,” at the Università di Venezia Ca’ Foscari delivered in Italian – presented since in English as a workshop under the title “Music as a means of survival among Native Americans: ‘Rockin’ Warriors’”
  • colloquium on “Polymodality and Vernacularism in my Three American Fantasies” delivered to musicianship classes at Santa Monica College, contemporary piano music seminar at the Folkwang Hochschule in Duisburg, Germany, and composers at the Universidad de Costa Rica

Speaking about “Trilogia dantesca”