[1] Conte has received commissions from Chanticleer, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Harvard University Chorus, the Men’s Glee Clubs of Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame, GALA Choruses from the cities of San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the Dayton Philharmonic, the Oakland Symphony, the Stockton Symphony, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, the American Guild of Organists (2004, 2009, 2014, 2015), Sonoma City Opera, and the Gerbode Foundation (for his opera America Tropical).

His earliest musical experiences were attending rehearsals of Robert Shaw’s Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, of which his mother Nancy was a member, and singing in the doo-wop vocal group Shameful and the Seven Sinners.

[32] In 2022, he joined the faculty of SongFest, an annual festival dedicated to the medium of art song,[33] and in 2021–22 he served as a composer-mentor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

[36][37][38][39][40] One of his best-known works is the opera The Gift of the Magi (Nicholas Giardini, librettist), which has received over 30 productions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Russia.

Many of his choral works have received wide acceptance, including Cantate Domino, Invocation and Dance, Ave Maria, Charm me asleep, Elegy for Matthew (in memory of Matthew Sheppard, text by John Stirling Walker), September Sun (in memory of 9/11, with text also by Walker), An Exhortation (composed for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama), and Three Mexican Folk Songs.