Steven Stucky

Steven Stucky ( /ˈstʌki/; born November 7, 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, presents the premiere of Steven Stucky's oratorio August 4, 1964, with soloists, from left, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, soprano Laquita Mitchell, tenor Vale Rideout, and baritone Robert Orth.

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. Stucky's principal composition teachers were Richard Willis, Robert Palmer, and Karel Husa; his principal conducting teacher was Daniel Sternberg.

Stucky has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. He is Given Foundation Professor of Composition at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; he was long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was resident composer 1988-2009 (the longest such affiliation in American orchestral history); and he was host of the New York Philharmonic's Hear & Now series 2005-09. He has also taught at Eastman and Berkeley, the latter as Ernest Bloch Professor in 2003. At Cornell, he founded Ensemble X and led it for nine seasons, 1997-2006, while he also was the guiding force behind the celebrated Green Umbrella series in Los Angeles.

His prominent composition students include Joseph Phibbs, Marc Mellits, Robert Paterson, David Conte, Thomas C. Duffy, James Matheson, Steven Burke, Xi Wang, Spencer Topel, Diego Vega, Fang Man, Anna Weesner, Hannah Lash, Andrew Waggoner, Sean Shepherd, Yotam Haber, Chris Arrell, Alfred Cohen, and many others.

Current Projects

Stucky's current and forthcoming projects include a work for the Pittsburgh Symphony (in honor of the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring) to be premièred under Manfred Honeck at Heinz Hall in February 2012, as well as works for the Music from Angel Fire Festival, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the PianoSpheres series, and violinist Cho-Liang Lin.

Compositions

Orchestral

• Kenningar (Symphony No. 4) (1977-78)
• Transparent Things: In Memoriam V.N. (1980)
• Double Concerto (1982-85, rev.1989), for violin, oboe/oboe d'amore & chamber orchestra
• Voyages (1983-84), for cello & orchestral winds
• Dreamwaltzes (1986)
• Concerto for Orchestra (1986-87)
• Son et Lumière (1988)
• Angelus (1989-90)
• Anniversary Greeting (1991)
• Impromptus (1991)
• Funeral Music for Queen Mary (after Purcell) (1992), for orchestral winds
• To Whom I Said Farewell (1992, rev. 2003), for mezzo-soprano & chamber orchestra
• Fanfare for Los Angeles (1993)
• Ancora (1994)
• Fanfares and Arias (1994), for orchestral winds
• Fanfare for Cincinnati (1994)
• Double Flute Concerto (1994), for two flutes & orchestra
• Pinturas de Tamayo (1995)
• Music for Saxophones and Strings (1996)
• Concerto Mediterraneo (1998), for guitar & orchestra
• Escondido Fanfare (1998)
• Threnos (1998), for orchestral winds
• American Muse (1999), for baritone & orchestra
• Concerto for Percussion and Wind Orchestra (2001)
• Colburn Variations (2002), for string orchestra
• Etudes (2002), concerto for recorder & chamber orchestra
• Spirit Voices (2002-03), concerto for percussion & orchestra
• Second Concerto for Orchestra (2003)
• Jeu de timbres (2003)
• Hue and Cry (2006), for wind band
• Radical Light (2006-07)
• Rhapsodies (2008)
• Chamber Concerto (2009)
• Silent Spring (2011)

Choral

• Spring and Fall: To a Young Child (1972), for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir
• Drop, drop, slow tears (1979), for a cappella S.S.A.A.T.T.B.B. choir
• Cradle Songs (1997), for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir
• To Musick (2000), for a cappella men's choir
• Skylarks (2001), for a cappella S.A. & S.A.T.B choir
• Whispers (2002), for a cappella S.A.T.B. soli & S.A.T.T.B.B. choir
• Three New Motets (2005), for a cappella double S.A.T.B. choir
• Eyesight (2007), for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir
• August 4, 1964 (2007-08), for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor & baritone soli, S.A.T.B. choir & orchestra
• The Kingdom of God (In No Strange Land) (2008), for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir
• Gravity’s Dream (2009), for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir
• Say Thou Dost Love Me (2012) for a cappella S.A.T.B. choir

Chamber

• Movements (1970), for four celli
• Quartet (1972-73), for clarinet, viola, cello & piano
• Movements III.: Seven Sketches (1976), for flute & clarinet
• Refrains (1976), for five percussion
• Notturno (1981), for alto saxophone & piano
• Varianti (1982), for flute, clarinet & piano
• Boston Fancies (1985), for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola & cello
• Serenade (1990), for wind quintet
• Birthday Fanfare (1993), for three trumpets
• Salute (1997), for flute, clarinet, horn, trombone, percussion, piano, violin & cello
• Ad Parnassum (1998), for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin & cello
• Ai due amici (1998), for chamber ensemble
• Tres Pinturas (1998), for violin & piano
• Nell'ombra, nella luce (1999-2000), for string quartet
• Partita-Pastorale after J.S.B. (2000), for clarinet, piano & string quartet
• Tamayo Nocturne (2001), for chamber ensemble
• Sonate en forme de préludes (2003-04), for oboe, horn & harpsichord
• Meditation and Dance (2004), for clarinet & piano
• Piano Quartet (2005), for violin, viola, cello & piano
• Four Postcards (2008), for wind quintet & marimba
• Dust Devil (2009), for solo marimba
• Piano Quintet (2009-10), for two violins, viola, cello & piano
• Scherzino (2010), for alto saxophone and piano
• Allegretto quasi Andantino (Schubert Dream) (2010), for piano four hands

Vocal

• Sappho Fragments (1982), for female voice & chamber ensemble
• Two Holy Sonnets of Donne (1982), mezzo-soprano, oboe & piano
• Four Poems of A.R. Ammons (1992), for baritone & chamber ensemble
• To Whom I Said Farewell (1992, rev. 2003), for mezzo-soprano & chamber orchestra
• American Muse (1999), for baritone & orchestra
• Aus der Jugendzeit (2010-11), for baritone & chamber ensemble

Solo instrumental

• Three Little Variations for David (2000), for piano
• Album Leaves (2002), for piano
• Dialoghi (2006), for cello
• Dust Devil (2009), for marimba
• Isabelle Dances (2009-10), for solo marimba

Arrangements of music by other composers

• Noctuelles (Miroirs, No.1) (Maurice Ravel, orch. Stucky 2001) (Theodore Presser Co.)
• Les Noces (Igor Stravinsky, orch. Stucky 2005), for solo voices, S.A.T.B. and full orchestra (Chester Music)
• Bucolics (Witold Lutoslawski, arr. Stucky 2006), for 9 instruments (Chester Music)
• Eight Songs from the Spanish Songbook (Hugo Wolf, orch. Stucky 2008), for mezzo-soprano & orchestra (Theodore Presser Co.)

Awards

• 2011: Composer of the Year, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 2011-12 season
• 2011: Elected Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, New Music USA
• 2008: Elected Chair of the Board of Directors, American Music Center
• 2007: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2006: Elected a trustee of the American Academy in Rome
• 2006: Joined Board of Directors of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation
• 2006: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2006: Paul Fromm Composer-in-Residence, American Academy in Rome
• 2005: Pulitzer Prize for Music for Second Concerto for Orchestra
• 2003: Bloch Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley
• 2002: Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2001: Aaron Copland Fund for American Music recording grant
• 1998: Barlow Endowment Commission
• 1997: Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Centro Studi Ligure (Italy)
• 1995: Special Commendation, National Association of Composers USA
• 1991: Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission
• 1989: Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Music (Concerto for Orchestra)
• 1986: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1982: ASCAP Deems Taylor Award (for "Lutosławski and His Music")
• 1978: Composer Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
• 1975: First Prize, American Society of University Composers Competition
• 1974: ASCAP Victor Herbert Prize for composition

External links

• Composer's official website
• Theodore Presser: the Composer's Publisher and his full Biography
• NPR: Steven Stucky Wins Pulitzer Prize for Music featuring the Third Movement of Second Concerto for listening in real audio
• NewMusicBox.org: Steven Stucky Wins Pulitzer Prize
• Biography on Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association
• Elliott Carter: A Conversation with Steven Stucky
• World Premiere of Steven Stucky's August 4, 1964
• Rhapsodies at the Dallas Symphony
• Steven Stucky: Rhapsodies (New York Philharmonic)
• Interview in Big D
• Composing Thoughts 01, with Steven Stucky (featuring Son et Lumière, Boston Fancies & Funeral Music for Queen Mary)
• Composing Thoughts 02, with Steven Stucky (featuring excerpts from and comments on Sonate en forme de préludes and Dialoghi)