B.M
Baylor University. Violin Performance ’03
M.M
University of Michigan Violin Performance ’05 / Orchestral Conducting ’08
D.M.A
University of Michigan Orchestral Conducting ’15
About
VUCA 2515
Biography
Diego Piedra is the Orchestra Director at Valparaiso University. Equally accomplished as a performer and educator, he has led both student and professional ensembles across the Americas and the Midwest. As a conductor, he has appeared with Spectrum Orchestra, Luther College, the University of Toledo, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, musicians of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, among others.
Previously Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the University of Costa Rica, Dr. Piedra founded and directed the Manuel María Gutiérrez National Youth Orchestra at SINEM, Costa Rica’s version of El Sistema. He has also appeared as a violin teacher and performer in Venezuela, Honduras, and Guatemala. Since 2014, he has served as Music Director of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra’s Summer String Camp.
An active professional violinist, Dr. Piedra performs with the South Bend and Kalamazoo symphonies and has been a member of several distinguished orchestras, including the New World Symphony. He received an honorary mention at a conducting competition in London (2017) and an honorable mention from The American Prize in the College/University Orchestra Division (2022). Dr. Piedra holds a DMA and dual master’s degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler and participated in the Grammy Award–winning recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.
He studied violin with Yehonatan Berick, and conducting with Kenneth Kiesler and participated in master classes with Simon Rattle, Carl St. Clair, Giancarlo Guerrero and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
