Steven Stucky

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra presenting the premiere of Steven Stucky's oratorio, August 4, 1964Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

Life and career Steven 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. At Baylor University, he studied composition with Richard Willis, and conducting with Daniel Sternberg.

He studied composition with Karel Husa at Cornell. 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.

Steven Stucky 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. 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. 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. 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 Aspen. In 2014 he became Professor Emeritus at Cornell and joined the composition faculty at Juilliard.

Among the composers who studied with Stucky are Joseph Phibbs, 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, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Sean Shepherd, Chris Arrell, Chris Gendall and Jesse Jones.

Steven Stucky taught master classes and served residencies around the world, including Beijing, Shanghai, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the Tanglewood Music Center, and many others.

Stucky died of brain cancer at his home in Ithaca, New York on February 14, 2016.

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 No. 1 (1986–87) Son et Lumière (1988) Threnos (1988), for wind ensemble 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 wind ensemble Fanfare for Cincinnati (1994) Concerto for Two Flutes and Orchestra (1994) Pinturas de Tamayo (1995) Music for Saxophones and Strings (1996) Concerto Mediterraneo (1998), for guitar & orchestra Escondido Fanfare (1998) 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 ensemble Radical Light (2006–07) Rhapsodies for Orchestra (2008) Chamber Concerto (2009) Silent Spring (2011) Symphony (2012)

Opera The Classical Style: An Opera (of Sorts) (2013–14), libretto by Jeremy Denk, after the book by Charles Rosen

Choral Spring and Fall: To a Young Child (1972), for a cappella SATB choir Drop, drop, slow tears (1979), for a cappella SSAATTBB choir Cradle Songs (1997), for a cappella SATB choir To Musick (2000), for a cappella men's choir Skylarks (2001), for a cappella S.A. & SATB choir Whispers (2002), for a cappella SATB soli & SATTBB choir Three New Motets (2005), for a cappella double SATB choir (O admirabile commercium, O sacrum convivium, O vos omnes) Eyesight (2007), for a cappella SATB choir August 4, 1964 (2007–08), for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor & baritone soli, SATB choir & orchestra The Kingdom of God (In No Strange Land) (2008), for a cappella SATB choir Gravity’s Dream (2009), for a cappella SATB choir Say Thou Dost Love Me (2012) for a cappella SATB choir Take Him, Earth (2012) for SATB choir with chamber orchestra Winter Stars (2014) for a cappella SATB choir The Music of Light (2015) for double a cappella SATB choir

Chamber Duo (1969), for viola & cello 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 1991: Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission 1995: Special Commendation, National Association of Composers USA 1997: Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Centro Studi Ligure (Italy) 1998: Barlow Endowment Commission 2001: Aaron Copland Fund for American Music recording grant 2002: Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters 2003: Bloch Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley 2005: Pulitzer Prize for Music for Second Concerto for Orchestra 2013: Brock Commission