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Joseph J. Amante y Zapata

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Bio

Dr. Joseph Amante y Zapata is professor of music and past chair of the Performing Arts Department, where he is director of choral activities. He is also an adjunct instructor of Latin American and Caribbean Music and is past director of Chorus at Roger Williams University. His choral interests include sacred music of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, of which he has transcribed several Salve Reginas, Magnificats, and other New Spain works.

Ever proud of his Mexican-American heritage, Amante applied for and received a Faculty Innovation Fund Award in 2024 and produced a "Zarzuelas, Canciones y Mariachi: A celebration of Hispanic and Latin Music" performance. 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 Morton Lauridsen, Rodney Eichenberger, James H. Vail, John Glenn Paton, John Moriarty, Daniel Pinkham, and Joseph Flummerfelt. He has also studied 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 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. Joseph and his wife and family came to South Kingstown, Rhode Island in 2001, when Terry became a professor at the Feinstein College of Education at the University of Rhode Island.

Some facts: First to offer History of Rock at a RI state college, first to offer Latin American & Caribbean Music at a RI state college, first Latino elected to department chair at CCRI, and he is the great grand-nephew of Emiliano Zapata.

Office Hours

*email to schedule an appointment

MUSC 2000 Latin American & Caribbean Music
MUSC 1220D-001 Chamber Singers
MUSC 2810-001 Sight Singing & Ear Training 4

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

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) 
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-

Presentations and Activities

Zarzuelas, Canciones y Mariachi

Fall 2024, Mandolins and Messiah Pt. 1
https://youtu.be/CZO6UtLJFPY?si=1iwX3h7itoJ__YZ- 

Spring 2023, G. Fauré "Cantique de jean racine"
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...

April 28, 2024 w/NaBSCO
-Brahms, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), op. 54 with Coro Amante
-Brahms, Nañie, op. 82 with Coro Amante
-Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, op. 67

Interested singers can contact me at (401) 932-0202 or email [email protected]