Tom Di Nardo

Tom Di Nardo died on Saturday 19 September 2026 in Catania, Sicily, Italy, aged 89. According to The Inquirer he died of a brain hemorrhage; the Chestnut Hill Local reported that his illness was brief. He was near the end of a trip that had taken him to friends in Tuscany, to family in his ancestral region of Abruzzo and, for the first time, to Sicily. His son Marc and daughter in law Elizabeth Drum travelled to be with him.

Tributes came from former colleagues and musicians. Retired Inquirer writer David Lee Preston called him a pro's pro both as a journalist and as a human being, and conductor Gary White said he worked tirelessly to bring members of the arts together. He was survived by his partner Margie Jones, his children Marc Di Nardo and Lisa Di Nardo Parker, his former wife, his sister Martha Neuringer and his grandson Quinn Parker. A memorial celebration was to be held later, and the family suggested donations to the Film Music Society or Philadelphia Sinfonia.

Thomas Eugene Di Nardo was born on 7 August 1937 in South Philadelphia and grew up in Germantown, where he attended Germantown Friends School. He was naturally adept at mathematics and physics, while teachers encouraged him to write more. He played shortstop on the school baseball team.

After high school he studied electrical engineering at Tufts University in Massachusetts, graduating with a bachelor's degree. He lived in Mount Airy for a few years after university before settling back in Germantown, where he lived for most of his life.

Di Nardo joined the Philadelphia Electric Company, now Peco, in 1960 and spent 36 years there until 1996, designing high voltage outdoor wiring systems. During storm outages he sometimes worked through the night until the lights came back on.

In 1974 he began writing freelance classical music reviews for the Philadelphia Bulletin at night. After the Bulletin closed in 1982 he wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News and The Inquirer until 2017, never as a staff member. Over about 43 years he produced thousands of articles about symphonies, chamber groups, opera, ballet, dance, jazz, pop, film and local music shops and venues, including more than 1,000 features and news stories for the Daily News and Inquirer. He interviewed figures such as Luciano Pavarotti, Yo-Yo Ma, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Renee Fleming and Denyce Graves, and became friends with Riccardo Muti and JoAnn Falletta. He often urged readers to try opera and concerts for themselves.

He championed local artists, above all the composer Romeo Cascarino. He organised and executive produced the 1982 premiere of Cascarino's opera William Penn at the Academy of Music, and the composer Kile Smith credited him with making possible the Naxos recording of Cascarino's orchestral music conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

In 2016 Jaygayle Music Books published his two collections, Performers Tell Their Stories: 40 Years Inside the Arts and Listening to Musicians: 40 Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later contributed 65 short biographies to The Philadelphia Music Book, a reference work on musicians from the Philadelphia area.

Di Nardo married Diane Allen, and they had a son, Marc, and a daughter, Lisa. After their divorce he became the longtime partner of Margie Jones. The couple travelled widely, in Europe, Russia and South America and on tours with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and were known for Christmas parties at which they served homemade pizza from a family recipe. In later years he cared for Jones during her health problems.

He played piano, enjoyed photography, history and culture, travelled often to Italy and served on the board of Peace Day Philly. A keen Phillies fan, he was at Veterans Stadium when the team clinched the 1980 World Series, and he played softball for the team of the Pen and Pencil Club.

Di Nardo's thousands of articles form a detailed record of Philadelphia's musical life from the 1970s to the 2010s, and his books preserve many of his interviews with performers and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His work for Romeo Cascarino brought the composer's music to wider audiences, and his profiles in The Philadelphia Music Book help document musicians from the region. Friends remembered him for his curiosity and for treating everyone, from star performers to ushers and ticket takers, with the same interest and respect.