Steven Stucky

Steven Edward Stucky (/ˈstʌki/; November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra presenting the premiere of Steven Stucky's oratorio, August 4, 1964

Life and career

Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and composition with Macon Sumerlin. He attended Baylor University and Cornell.[1] Stucky worked with Karel Husa and Daniel Sternberg.

Stucky wrote commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and St. Paul. He was long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was resident composer 1988–2009 (the longest such affiliation in American orchestral history); he was host of the New York Philharmonic's Hear & Now series 2005–09; and he was Pittsburgh Symphony Composer of the Year for the 2011–12 season. For Pittsburgh, he composed Silent Spring, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's epochal book of the same title.[2] He teamed with the celebrated pianist and author Jeremy Denk to create his first opera, The Classical Style (based on the celebrated book by Charles Rosen), which premiered in June 2014 at the Ojai Music Festival.[3] Other noteworthy compositions by Stucky include the symphonic poem Radical Light (2007), Rhapsodies for Orchestra (2008), the oratorio August 4, 1964 (2008), a Symphony (2012), and his Second Concerto for Orchestra (2003), which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music.[4][5]

Stucky was an expert on the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski and authored the 1981 study Lutoslawski and His Music. He also was curator of the Philharmonia Orchestra's 2013 centenary celebration of that composer, Woven Words: Music Begins Where Words End. Stucky was the Given Foundation Professor of Composition at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

There he founded Ensemble X and led it for nine seasons, from 1997 until 2006, while at the same time he also was the guiding force behind the celebrated Green Umbrella series in Los Angeles. He has also taught at Eastman and Berkeley, the latter as Ernest Bloch Professor in 2003. After several earlier teaching and conducting visits, in 2013 he became artist-faculty composer-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival and School.[6] In 2014 he became Professor Emeritus at Cornell and joined the composition faculty at the Juilliard School.[7]

Among the composers who studied with Stucky are Marc Mellits, Robert Paterson, David Conte, Thomas C. Duffy, Yotam Haber, James Matheson, Steven Burke, Xi Wang, Spencer Topel, Diego Vega, Fang Man, Anna Weesner, Hannah Lash, Andrew Waggoner, Sean Shepherd, Yotam Haber, Chris Arrell and Jesse Jones.[8] He taught master classes and served residencies around the world, including at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, Rice University, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the Tanglewood Music Center, and many others.

In his review of the chamber piece Cantus for the London-based Bachtrack.com, Thomas May described Stucky as "a masterful colorist who exploits his sextet of players to paint with an orchestrally rich palette of sonorities: bell-like chimings and sparkling flecks from percussion and piano create a mysterious aura to suggest something imminent, an event horizon we long to cross."[9]

Stucky died of brain cancer at his home in Ithaca, New York on February 14, 2016, aged 66.[10]

Compositions

Orchestral

Opera

Choral

Chamber

Vocal

Solo instrumental

Arrangements of music by other composers

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Steven Stucky biography". Theodore Presser. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
  2. ↑ Druckenbrod, Andrew (February 12, 2012). "Composer Steven Stucky's new piece will honor Rachel Carson's work". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  3. ↑ Boehm, Mike (December 4, 2013). "Ojai Music Festival to premiere a comic opera by Denk and Stucky". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Child, Fred (April 5, 2005). "Steven Stucky Wins Pulitzer Prize for Music". NPR. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, Drama and Music". The New York Times. 2005. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ Oksenhorn, Stewart (July 21, 2013). "Music Festival: A new start for new music in Aspen". The Aspen Times. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Composers Matthias Pintscher and Steven Stucky to Join The Juilliard School's Composition Faculty This Fall 2014". The Juilliard School.
  8. ↑ Swed, Mark (October 31, 2013). "Review: A smoother sound from Juilliard String Quartet". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  9. ↑ "A gorgeous chamber music première in Seattle". Bachtrack.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (15 February 2016). "Steven Stucky, Composer Who Won a Pulitzer, Dies at 66". The New York Times. p. B11.
  11. ↑ Keebaugh, Aaron (March 29, 2014). "BMOP offers a riveting, rhapsodic Lei Liang premiere". Boston Classical Review. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  12. ↑ Cariaga, Daniel (January 19, 1990). "Music Reviews: Vaughan Williams, Stucky Works at the Philharmonic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  13. ↑ Rhein, John von (March 30, 1996). "Gielen Leads Cso In Beethoven, Steven Stucky's World Premiere". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  14. ↑ Druckenbrod, Andrew (January 14, 2012). "PSO abounds with a spirited sound: Concert review". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  15. ↑ Swed, Mark (March 15, 2004). "Sounds of eternal spring: Composer Steven Stucky's Second Concerto is a lush, tailored fit for Disney.". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  16. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (June 13, 2012). "New Composers and New Sounds Converge in Buffalo". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  17. ↑ "2007 New Music Festival schedule". The Courier-Journal. September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  18. ↑ Kosman, Joshua (December 5, 2009). "Stucky's 'Radical Light' a feast of mood, color". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  19. ↑ Rhein, John von (December 2, 2011). "Jaap van Zweden directs bracing Mahler symphony with CSO". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  20. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (September 19, 2008). "The Conductor Asked for Something Rhapsodic; the Composer Delivered a Surprise". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  21. ↑ Druckenbrod, Andrew (February 18, 2012). "PSO takes hard look at turmoil, both environmental and human". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  22. ↑ Kanny, Mark (February 18, 2012). "Offerings of 'Silent Spring,' venerated material excel". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  23. ↑ Ng, David (September 26, 2012). "Steven Stucky marks return to L.A. with his very own 'Symphony'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  24. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (November 30, 2012). "A New Work Bares Its Secrets, With Feeling". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  25. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (December 5, 2014). "We’re Nothing but Busts, Mozart. Busts!". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  26. ↑ Swed, Mark (June 16, 2014). "Review 'Classical Style' at Ojai Music Festival draws on wit, wisdom". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Woodard, Josef (March 27, 2007). "Steven Stucky shows modern touch: The composer balances complexity, immediacy at Cal Lutheran's New Music Concert.". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  28. ↑ Oestreich, James R. (September 19, 2008). "All the Way Through Fateful Day for L.B.J.". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  29. ↑ Ross, Alex (June 6, 2011). "Mix And Match: Spring for Music, at Carnegie Hall". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  30. ↑ Cantrell, Scott (June 25, 2012). "Classical CD review: DSO releases Stucky's ‘August 4, 1964’". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  31. ↑ Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich, ed. (2010). The Pulitzer Prize Winners for Music: Composer Biographies, Premiere Programs and Jury Reports. Peter Lang. p. 263. ISBN 3631596081.
  32. ↑ Paget, Clive (February 13, 2013). "Classical GRAMMY Awards 2013". Limelight. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  33. ↑ http://acda.org/page.asp?page=brock_pieces, Retrieved March 2016

External links

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