Joseph J. Amante y Zapata

Bio

Dr. Joseph Amante y Zapata is chair of the Performing Arts Department at CCRI, where, as director of choral activities, he conducts both the CCRI Chamber Singers and Chorus. He is an adjunct instructor of Latin and Caribbean music history and is past director of Chorus at Roger Williams University.  Amante's choirs have participated in choral competitions and festivals at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with the Boston Pro Musica in Boston, MA, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. His choral interests include music of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, of which he has transcribed several Salve Reginas and Magnificats, and other Spanish works.  A current project involves the co-editing of Handel's Messiah into a Spanish performance score.

He is the recipient of a scholarship from the Herb Alpert Foundation, an Administrative Fellow of Harvard University and received a grant from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.  While in college, he sang in choirs under Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Rafael Kubelick, Alfred Schnittke, Riccardo Muti (see), and played percussion under John Cage.

Amante has studied with Joseph Flummerfelt, James H. Vail, Rodney Eichenberger, John Glenn Paton, Morton Lauridsen, John Moriarty and Daniel Pinkham. He has also performed orchestral work with Hans Beer, Pascal Verrot, Carl St. Clair and Leonard Bernstein at Seranak (Tanglewood).

Dr. Amante has been an officer of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), both in California and Massachusetts, and is past president of Rhode Island ACDA. He has been an accompanist for music instructors as well as a part-time pianist and vocal soloist at various churches throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  He is a violist and past assistant music director of the Ocean State Pops Orchestra (OSPO), mandolist and assistant conductor of L'Esperance Mandolin Ensemble, as well as past community member-at-large for Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra (NaBSCO) and board member of Ensemble Altera.

A native of San Diego, Dr. Amante moved to New England to pursue his master’s degree in Choral Conducting at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He met his wife, Terry, while living there. His family came to South Kingstown, Rhode Island in 2001, when she became a professor at the School of Education at URI.

Fun fact, Dr. Amante is the great grand-nephew of the Mexican revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata.

Office Hours

*email to schedule an appointment

MUSC 1165-600 History of Rock online
MUSC 1165-601 History of Rock online
MUSC 1220A Chamber Singers
https://fb.watch/hJKJwQIrO5/

My email address at Roger Williams University is: [email protected]

Education

• D.M.A. major in Choral Music (minor in Vocal Pedagogy) 2002
  • University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • Treatise: Sacred choral music in Colonial Mexico, 1650-1750: An Introduction
  • Awarded: Herb Alpert Scholarship for Emerging Young Artists
• M.M. in Choral Conducting 1989
  • New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA
• Complete CV
• Coro Amante
• http://lesperancemandolin.com/
• Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra

Learning Resources

• MUSC 1165-600 and 601
• Choir Facebook

Academic Focus

One of my interests is the choral music of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and I have transcribed three Salve Reginas and three Magnificats as well as smaller works. If you are interested in acquiring some of this work for performance please email me directly.

Magnificat for 3 four-part choirs, Bernardo de Peralta Escudero (d. 1617) in publication 
Magnificat primi toni, Francisco Lopez Capillas (1614-1674)
Magnificat secundi toni, Hernando Franco (1532-1585)

Salve Regina a5, Pedro Bermudez (1558-1605)
Salve Regina a4 de Contra altos, Pedro Bermudez (1558-1605)
Salve Regina a4, Pedro Bermudez (1558-1605) in publication

Former choruses directed-

• http://westfordchorus.org/
• http://townesingers.org/
• https://www.westbaychorale.org/

Presentations and Activities

Spring 2023
https://youtu.be/H4wp6VX_xgg

CCRI YouTube channel
(pandemic Spring 2021)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqEviMhVwqU

L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble
https://lesperancemandolin.com/video/video-concert-fair-phyllis-lesperance-mandolin-ensemble-with-the-ccri-chorus/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ornsRjnlExo

Areas of Interest

Coro Amante...

UPCOMING EVENTS!

December 3, 2023
3:00PM Phillips Memorial Baptist Church
-Handel's "Messiah" pt. 1 with L'Esperance Mandolin Ensemble

Tickets: https://lesperancemandolin.com/event/messiah-with-mandolins/
Student tickets: https://lesperancemandolin.com/student-tickets-for-messiah/

April 22, 2024
A celebration of Latin & Hispanic music: Zarzuelas, canciones y mariachi
7:00PM Bobby Hackett Theatre

April 28, 2024 w/NaBSCO
-Brahms, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) with Coro Amante
-Brahms, Nañie with Coro Amante
(Beethoven, Symphony No. 5)