Guest Composer

Nicole Piunno

Composer for the 2026 Conference

Nicole Piunno is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seeming opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging light and dark, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.

Piunno holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teacher was Ricardo Lorenz. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. Piunno earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education and her emphasis was on instrumental music. Her music has been performed by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the United States Coast Guard Band, and at many universities and conservatories around the country. Her large ensemble music has also been featured at multiple regional CBDNA conferences, the Midwest Clinic, and numerous all-state concerts.

Western Michigan University is pleased to welcome Nicole Piunno as guest composer for the Irving S. Gilmore School of Music's 56th annual Spring Conference on Wind and Percussion Music.