Nicholas Rocha

Nicholas Rocha is a life-long musician, having begun piano lessons at five years old and continuing through high school. He is a 2011 graduate of Vassar College, where he received his B.A. in music, and also completed a minor in medieval/Renaissance studies. In the past eight years, Nicholas has devoted himself to the choral arts, singing in several choirs - most recently, the Vassar College Mixed Choir under the direction of Christine Howlett and the Vassar College Madrigal Singers under the direction of Drew Minter.

While at college, Nicholas also worked as the music history intern for professors Brian Mann and Kathryn Libin, with whom he shares an inexhaustible love for musicology. He also worked as an accompanist for the College's Women's Chorus for two years, and for the local Capella Festiva Treble Choir for three years. He also proudly served as the director of the college's only student-run early music group, the Vassar Camerata for two years. Under his direction, the group performed notable works such as Lully's "De profundis," Vivaldi's "Magnificat," and Josquin's "Missa Pange lingua."

Nicholas has composed several choral pieces now, the Ave Maria written for the College's Madrigal Singers available for purchase being the very first. He also wrote a choral setting of Walt Whitman's text "A Clear Midnight" for the passing of Vassar's eighth president, Virginia Smith. It was performed in the fall of 2010 for a memorial ceremony held for her. Nicholas is currently working on an unaccompanied Requiem Mass and an English setting of the Mass Ordinary for organ and SATB, in light of the new translation. He has also composed a Salve Regina for SSAA for the Vassar College Women's Chorus, and he looks forward to its premiere in the spring.