Bio

Peter Kadeli enjoys a multifaceted career as a conductor and composer. He serves as Head of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities at The Catholic University of America and is Associate Conductor of the two-time Grammy Award–winning The Washington Chorus. In 2025, he was named a second-place national winner in the American Prize in Choral Conducting (University Division). Kadeli previously held teaching positions at Indiana University and Hope College and has served as a liturgical music director in the Catholic Dioceses of Indianapolis, Arlington, and Lansing.

Kadeli has collaborated with a wide range of ensembles and artists in performances across the United States and abroad. Recent engagements with the Catholic University Chamber Choir include the closing Mass of the Society for Catholic Liturgy’s national conference; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Baltimore Basilica Schola Cantorum and Three Notch’d Road under the direction of Samuel Rowe; and Duruflé’s Requiem with The Choral Arts Society of Washington and Marie Bucoy-Calavan at Carnegie Hall. His conducting credits include the Indiana University Oratorio Chorus, Conductors Orchestra, NOTUS, Opera Chorus, and Singing Hoosiers, as well as the University of Michigan University Choir and Orpheus Singers. He led NOTUS in Reena Esmail’s Tuttarana at the American Choral Directors Association Midwestern Conference, and his collaboration with Grammy Award–nominated artist Eric Church was featured on Church’s official tour album, Holdin’ My Own. As an assistant conductor, Kadeli has helped prepare choruses for conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Jonathan Heyward, Eugene Rogers, Thomas Wilkins, Kenneth Kiesler, Arthur Fagen, Marzio Conti, and Louis Lohraseb.

An active interpreter and composer of contemporary music, Kadeli recorded selected choral works of Sir James MacMillan with the Catholic University Chamber Choir for the Welcoming Children in Worship project. He premiered Timothy Dusenbury’s Requiem for a Warrior in 2023 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall, later broadcast by South Carolina Public Radio. At Indiana University, he led multiple orchestral premieres, including the first recording of Kian Ravaei’s Feeling New Strength. Kadeli’s own Veni Sancte Spiritus was premiered at Smetana Hall in Prague and the Stiftung Mozarteum Großer Saal in Salzburg, with its American premiere given by the National Philharmonic Singers and Takoma Ensemble. His Beyond the Starlit Skies, published by Kandinsky Music, was featured on Pittsburgh’s WQED-FM Classical Music 2023 promotional CD.

Committed to community engagement through music, Kadeli founded the Vivaldi Gloria Project to support Indianapolis residents in need, uniting musicians from across the city in a benefit performance. He co-founded the Bishop O’Connell Youth Music Festival and the Arlington Diocesan Honors Music Festival, expanding access to high-quality musical opportunities for young musicians. He has also served as an adjudicator for the Virginia Music Educators Association and the Michigan School Vocal Music Association and as a choral clinician for educational and religious institutions.

Kadeli holds a Doctor of Music in Choral Conducting, with a minor in music history and literature, from Indiana University; a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Michigan; and Bachelor of Music degrees in composition and choral music education from George Mason University. He gratefully acknowledges the mentorship of Eugene Rogers, Dominick DiOrio, Betsy Burleigh, Walter Huff, Lisa Billingham, and Stan Engebretson.