Dominic Florio

At just 19, soulful singer/songwriter Dominic Florio has released his first album titled REFLECTIONS, with songs that span several genres from soul, pop, to hip hop. Though the album is being released on a small scale, it is Dominic's first major effort in attempting to make people aware of him, and his music.

Dominic began experimenting with songwriting, soon after just starting to play the piano at 13, when he first heard a compilation of Billy Joel's greatest hits. After a few months he owned every Billy Joel album, and started exploring new music. Elton John, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Taylor, and others is what Dominic found. Music like this shaped his ideas of music early on.

Upon entering high school not only was Dominic performing professionally throughout the Chicago area, he also began his formal training in music. After taking classical piano, as well as voice, lessons near his home in Gurnee, Illinois for two years, he auditioned for and earned a full scholarship to attend a music conservatory in Chicago called the Merit School of Music where he majored in jazz piano and vocal performance. He was 16.

For the next two years Dominic was heavily involved in over nine different ensembles between his high school and music conservatory, besides working on his own music having weekly gigs at several establishments in the area gaining local attention, as well as composing music for several of his school's plays. Dominic began to find more contemporary music that started to influence his own. Artists like Ben Folds, Gavin DeGraw, and Andrew McMahon had a big affect on Dominic's writing. Through these artists Dominic was exposed to much more "pop" music. Also at this time, while he was playing in his high school's top jazz ensemble, Dominic was diving into seriously playing jazz piano. This was an important time in Dominic's development as a songwriter, having re-evaluated his views of music quite a few times.

Dominic is currently going to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He will earn Bachelor of Arts degree studying Composition, Production, and Performance. At the end of his first year at Berklee Dominic went into the studio with fellow classmates to record what would be his first solo project.