Composer Steven Stucky, whose Second Concerto for Orchestra won a Pulitzer Prize, has the unusual honor of two major premieres on the same day this season: September 18, 2008, saw the world premiere of his evening-length concert drama, August 4, 1964, by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned it; and the US premiere in New York City of Rhapsodies, by the New York Philharmonic, which performed its world premiere three weeks earlier at London’s BBC Proms during a European tour. Stucky and his collaborator, librettist Gene Scheer, based August 4, 1964 on events of that date: the discovery in Mississippi of the bodies of three recently murdered young civil rights workers and a spurious “attack” on two American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The composer, newly-appointed Chairman of the Board of the American Music Center, is the recipient of numerous commissions from orchestras, performing groups, individuals, and foundations both at home and abroad. The New York Times called the Second Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned and premiered in 2004 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
“an electrifying piece: Three movements that explore an orchestra’s potential in much the way Bartok’s and Lutoslawski’s concertos for orchestra do, but in ways that sound fresh and exciting. It alludes to works by other composers without losing its own focus, … stands apart from academic disputes about style and language, and strives for direct communication.”
Professor Steven Stucky in his studio at Cornell University. © Cornell University. Photo by Nicola Kountoupes, University Photography
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Mr. Stucky’s extensive catalogue of compositions ranges from large-scale orchestral works to a cappella miniatures for chorus, an eight-minute work for five percussionists, solo piano pieces, and music for such ensembles as piano quartet, string quartet, wind quintet, voice and piano, and saxophone and piano. He is also active as a conductor, writer, lecturer, and teacher, and for 20 years has been half of the longest relationship between a composer and an American orchestra: In 1988, André Previn appointed him Composer in Residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and today Stucky is the LAP’s Consulting Composer for New Music, working closely with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen on contemporary programming, the awarding of commissions, educational projects for school children, and programming for nontraditional audiences.
The composer is host of the New York Philharmonic’s acclaimed “Hear & Now” pre-concert programs, introducing important works and premieres to Philharmonic audiences. This season includes Peter Lieberson’s orchestral song cycle, The World in Flower before the world premiere sung by Joyce DiDonato and conducted by the Philharmonic’s next music director, Alan Gilbert. Mr. Stucky also presents “Upbeat Live”, part of the LAP’s Green Umbrella concert series.
Mr. Stucky participates this season in residencies at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotà, Colombia; the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing; National University of the Arts, Taipei; and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra gives the world premiere of his orchestration of Songs from Hugo Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch.
Last season, Mr. Stucky hosted previews of the New York Philharmonic’s celebration of Luciano Berio, which featured performances of Sinfonia and the complete Sequenza series. He also introduced Marc Neikrug’s Symphony No. 2 (“Quintessence”) with the composer and conductor Alan Gilbert; and Tan Dun’s new piano concerto with the composer before Lang Lang’s premiere performances.
Two seasons ago, compositions by Steven Stucky were performed by such artists as Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert and the San Francisco Symphony, Ludovic Morlot and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Marin Alsop and the St. Louis Symphony.
Other highlights of recent seasons were world premieres of Stucky’s Spirit Voices, his percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie, in Singapore; Jeu de timbres in Washington; and the Second Concerto for Orchestra in Los Angeles. Premiere’s three seasons ago included Emanuel Ax’s performance of the Sonate en forme de préludes at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Stucky’s own premiere of To Whom I Said Farewell – a song cycle with chamber orchestra – in Los Angeles.
Mr. Stucky’s compositions have been performed in recent years by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony, New World Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and others.
As an active teacher and mentor to young composers, Steven Stucky has sat on the Warsaw jury of the Witold Lutoslawski Competition for Composers. He is a world-renowned expert on the late composer’s music and the recipient of the Lutoslawski Society’s medal. He has participated in residencies at the American Academy in Rome, Princeton University’s Composition Colloquium, James Madison University, and Grinnell College.
Mr. Stucky frequently conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and Ensemble X, a contemporary music group he founded in 1997. With the former, he led the US premiere of his recorder concerto, Etudes, with Michala Petri, and conducted world and regional premieres by many of his contemporaries, among them Donald Crockett, Jacob Druckman, William Kraft, Witold Lutoslawski, Christopher Rouse, Joseph Phibbs, and Judith Weir.
Steven Stucky was Composer in Residence of the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2001 and director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble in 2005. There his interest in composers’ arrangements of each other’s works led him to direct a rare performance of Schoenberg’s arrangement of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, originally written for Vienna’s fabled Society for Private Musical Performances. Mr. Stucky is Chairman of the Board of the American Music Center, and was the first annual Barr Institute Composer Laureate at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Among his other honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP Victor Herbert Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His first Concerto for Orchestra was one of two finalists for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Mr. Stucky has taught at Cornell University since 1980, chaired the Music Department from 1992 to 1997, and now serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition. He has been Visiting Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music and Ernest Bloch Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Stucky, born November 7, 1949, in Hutchinson, Kansas, was raised in Kansas and Texas. He studied at Baylor and Cornell Universities with Richard Willis, Robert Palmer, Karel Husa, and Burrill Phillips.
Recordings and Grammy Awards:
Steven Stucky’s Cradle Songs and Whispers were commissioned and recorded by Chanticleer, the San Francisco-based male a cappella choir. The two discs were Billboard-charting bestsellers, and won Grammy awards. The numerous other recordings in Stucky’s discography include Ad Parnassum, Boston Fancies, Fanfares and Arias, Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (after Purcell), Nell’ombra, nella luce, Partita-Pastorale after J.S. Bach, Sappho Fragments, Serenade for Wind Quintet, Son et lumière, Threnos and Voyages.
Critical Acclaim for Steven Stucky’s Compositions:
“[Second Concerto for Orchestra is] a colorful, delight-bringing score, it has the feel of music we know well lovingly replanted to charm new surroundings … a perfect fit for an orchestra, conductor and audience. It is music expertly designed to show off the Philharmonic, Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Disney acoustic at their dazzling best.”
– Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
“[Second Concerto for Orchestra is] a distinguished addition to [his list of works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic]. … a fascinating amalgam: color, rhythm, propulsion …, bright solo instrumental writing, and breath-stopping dark sonorities.”
– Alan Rich, LA Weekly
Son et lumière has “… a great deal of energy, brilliant orchestration, and thematic interest.”
– Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun
“Stucky writes for the orchestra with great flair and confidence and the piece delivers exactly what the title promises: interesting sounds featuring an enjoyable interplay of light and shade.”
– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
“Dreamwaltzes is both stylish and substantial, a neatly shaped 15-minute work whose dynamic energy is considerable and whose orchestration is consistently well-crafted.”
– James Wierzbicki, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“ … a clever, affectionate collage that puts some old stylistic skeletons through provocative new paces. Dreamwaltzes left little doubt that past-tense creativity, when applied with craft and imagination, can be amusing as well as engaging.”
– Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles Times
“ … Stucky, with his feeling for big gestures and love of timbral variety, is at his best – or at least at his most free – when writing for full orchestra … imaginative, affecting.”
– Mark Lehman, American Record Guide
“Mr. Stucky set off Purcell’s music [Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary] as if in quotation marks, with a sense of distance built in. Sometimes the melody dwindled to a mere outline, like a bald patch in an old tapestry; at other times it withdrew behind a gentle overlay of modern harmonies, which slightly distorted it, as if viewed through rippled glass.”
– Anne Midgette, New York Times
“The lush sonorities of Pinturas, inspired by five paintings by 20th century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, fell easily on the ear … Pinturas is that rare achievement, a piece of programmatic music that is neither too abstract nor too literal … The audience paid Stucky the ultimate compliment.”
– Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times
“ … there’s always the chance of hearing something that will survive the lifetime of its composer … Boston Fancies by Steven Stucky may be one of those special works … clear structure of the alternating sections … a marvelous migration of instrumental highlighting … what is so impressive about Stucky’s achievement is that the declaration of immediately obvious structure allows him to delight the listener with breathtaking transitional passages between sections.”
– Jeff Dunn, San Francisco Classical Voice
“[Nell’ombra, Nella Luce (In Shadow, In Light)] was a piece with far more light than shadow in it, and great arcs of tensely radiant harmony, beautifully imagined for the medium.”
– Paul Griffiths, New York Times
“Nell’ombra, Nella Luce is a significant addition to the repertoire. … As the title’s visual metaphor suggests, it is concerned with the contrast between darkness and light. The composer uses the full palette available, from basics such as high and low notes to less common techniques, including harmonics and sul ponticello … But unlike most color-study pieces of music, Stucky’s new quartet satisfies the listener with an inner coherence undoubtedly strengthened by his close study of the music of the late Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski.”
– Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
“The 20-minute, four-movement [Concerto Mediterraneo for Solo Guitar and Orchestra] rarely raises its voice above an inviting, relaxed mezzo forte. Modernist techniques in the score blend with the often lovely guitar lines and soft-edged support from the orchestra … exquisite phrases … delicate and fragile touches … It’s a work well worth hearing again.”
– Pierre Ruhe, Washington Post
Much additional information about Steven Stucky’s compositions can be found on the Works page and at Theodore Presser Company.
September 2008
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