Diomede is a senior working toward a bachelor of music degree in music composition. He studies composition with Assistant Professor of Music Elaine Aberdam and Associate Professor of Music Joseph Parillo.
A baritone, he studies voice with Rene de la Garza. He has completed six courses in music history, including opera, the romantic era, and the modern era, is currently taking the Renaissance era, and will enroll in the history of the symphony next semester. According to Diomede: “Music history provides in-depth knowledge of different musical periods and styles which is one of the things that inspires me to compose music.” After graduation, he plans to pursue graduate work in music composition at both the masters and doctoral levels.
The scholarship is named for James Ladewig, URI professor of music history. It was endowed in 2005 through an anonymous $16,500 gift from a recent graduate who appreciated the excellent level of teaching that Ladewig has brought to the University during the past 21 years.
Ladewig is responsible for expanding the URI music history curriculum from the traditional classical repertory to include world music, jazz, and popular music.
A specialist in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, in particular instrumental and keyboard music of Italy, Ladewig has published scholarly articles in the Journal of Musicology, Frescobaldi Studies, and Studi Musicali. He recently edited the 30-volume series, Italian Instrumental Music of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries: Previously Unpublished Full Scores of Major Works from the Renaissance and Early Baroque.
Ladewig has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and is a member of the American Musicological Society, the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, and the Renaissance Society of America. Currently, he is the treasurer and member of the board of directors of the American Musicological Society.