The Mad River Chorale

Piero Bonamico leads a diverse musical life as a singer, conductor and writer from his home in Vermont. He has conducted the Mad River Chorale since 1996, with recent repertoire including: Mozart’s Requiem (2006), Mendelsson’s Elijah (2006),  Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (2007), the U.S. premiere of Christoph Schönherr’s Magnificat, the Groovy Version of Ox (2007), and Glenn McClure’s mass Saint Francis in the Americas (2008) at which the composer himself performed and remarked that the choir was “terrific” and that the performance was “among the best he had heard.” Mr. Bonamico has served as musical director for 42nd Street, Anything Goes, Beauty and the Beast, City of Angels, Fiddler On the Roof, Footloose the Musical, Les Miserables, Little Shop of Horrors, Little Woman, Once Upon a Mattress, Seussical the Musical, Sweet Charity, Tale of the Madarin Ducks, The Wiz, Urinetown, and West Side Story and is an active guest conductor at festivals and workshops.

Mr. Bonamico performs regularly as a vocalist. He was a baritone soloist in A Counterpoint Christmas and A Choral Excursion, two nationally televised concerts with Robert DeCormier’s ensemble Counterpoint. He made his New York solo debut in The Vegas Show at the Laurie Beachman Theater and his Boston debut in Act IV A Night of Music and Musings at the renowned Sculler’s Jazz Club. The Vegas Show was his third project with New York jazz pianist Gregory Toroian following A Night of Italian Song (2007) and Songs You’ll Know (2004). Of the latter concert, American Record Review’s Jim Lowe wrote:  “...Vocally Bonamico is always attractive, and in songs like the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson “September Song” and the Lerner and Loew “On the Street Where You Live,” his mellifluous tenor was applied expressively and attractively… the meaning of each song clearly conveyed to the receptive standing-room-only house.” Mr. Bonamico made his theatrical debut in 2005 as “Jamie” in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years and played the role of “Chris” in a concert version of Miss Saigon in 2007.

Mr. Bonamico served as co-author with conductor Donald Neuen on the collegiate textbook Choral Concepts, published by Wadsworth in January 2002 and was the editor or co-author of many other publications including: Artistic Musical Conducting (Neuen, DVD, 2003) Empower the Choir (Neuen, Textbook, 2004), Choral Excellence for Treble Voices (Marie Stultz, Textbook, 2006) and Success for Adolescent Singers (Patrick Freer, DVD, 2006).