Paul C. Echols

Paul C. Echols (1944 — September 25, 1994) was an American musicologist, music editor and publishing executive, music educator, and conductor.

Life and career Born in California, Echols grew up in Havana, Cuba. There he attended a school associated with an Anglican cathedral and was active in the school's chorus through which he developed an appreciation for early music composers like Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Duke University and a Master of Music from New York University. the United States premieres of Francesco Cavalli's Giasone, Loreto Vittori's La Galatea, and Jacques Offenbach's Les bavards; and the New York premiere of John Blow's Venus and Adonis. Not limited to early music, he directed several contemporary American operas at Mannes as well.

Opera contributions Echols created several pastiche for the opera stage based around both popular and court music and poetry and drama of the medieval period. The first of these was The City of Ladies which was constructed around an allegory by the 15th century Italian poet Christine de Pizan. This work utilized music composed by Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois and combined with Pizan's allegory, was staged in a style reminiscent of a mystery play with conventions of opera mixed in. This work was staged by the Mannes College of Music and performed by the Mannes Camerata in 1986. The work was intended to simulate a 15th-century Burgundian court masque. Several new poems were written to serve as text to early music written by composers like Binchois, Antoine Busnois, John Dowland, Du Fay, and Hayne van Ghizeghem among others. This opera premiered at the Mannes College of Music in 1988 and was subsequently revived in New York following Echols death in 1994.