Z. Randall Stroope

Mentors and contemporaries Cecil Effinger and Normand Lockwood, mentors of Stroope, are well-respected American composers. Effinger's Little Symphony No. 1 and Four Pastorales, arguably his most recognizable pieces, are performed by many ensembles across the U.S. and abroad. Normand Lockwood won the prestigious Prix de Rome, a scholarship given the select students within the arts, which allowed him to study in Rome.

Both Effinger and Lockwood were students of Nadia Boulanger, a student of Gabriel Fauré. Fauré was one of the greatest French composers of the twentieth century. Nadia Boulanger, became one of the most influential music theory teachers of the twentieth century, one of her first pupils being American composer Aaron Copland. Stroope credits Boulanger for his mentors' support of his creativity saying, “Efficiency of writing would be the main thing I took from my studies with Effinger. Boulanger didn’t try to replicate herself through her students; she let them be successful in their own way. As a result, Lockwood and Effinger were very open to different styles of music in my writing. It wasn’t a cookie cutter approach to composition.”

Morten Lauridsen, a colleague and friend of Stroope, is the professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and has been for more than thirty years. From 1994 to 2001 he held the position the composer-in-residence at the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Lauridsen, composer of works such as O magnum mysterium, Sure on this Shining Night, and Les Chansons des Roses, was named "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, President Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony. The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. While Stroope taught at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, Lauridsen held a residency and The Rowan University Concert Choir performed Lauridsen's works. During the concert, Morten Lauridsen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rowan University. Since then, Stroope and Lauridsen have continued to engage in collaborative projects. In 2010 and 2014, Lauridsen held residencies at Oklahoma State University similar to that at Rowan University.

Published material

Compositions (partial list of published works)

Abandon All My Heart This Night Rejoices All So Still American Christmas/American Rhapsody Amor de mi alma An die Freude And Sure Stars Shining... (poem by Sara Teasdale) Caritas et amor Christi Mutter (No. 2 of Triptych) Cloths of Heaven Consecrate the Place and Day Dance for Love Danny Boy Danse Macabre Dies irae Dona nobis pacem Echo of Beauty Fanfare from Cantus natalis Four Sonnets of Garcilaso de la Vega Go Lovely Rose Homeland Hodie! This Day How Can I Keep From Singing? I carry your heart with me Inscription of Hope I Am Not Yours I Have Loved Hours at Sea Image of Beauty Invocation Judaskuss (The Kiss of Judas) (No. 1 of Triptych) Tarantella (Jubilate Agno) Kyrie Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae Lux aeterna Magnificat Michelangelo's Sonnet My Flight to Heaven (Charm Me Asleep) Northwest Passage: Three Poetic Landscapes Odysseus and the Sirens Omnia Sol Os justi Petrus No. 3 of Triptych Psalm 23 Revelation Sanctus Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? She Walks in Beauty Sicut cervus Song to the Moon (La Luna) Soul Speak Sure On This Shining Night The Conversion of Saul The Pasture The Love of Truth There is No Rose The Road Not Taken This Endris Night Three Metaphysical Motets Vesuvius We Beheld Once Again the Stars Winter

Books Stroope contributed to the book Composers on Composing for Choir along with composers such as René Clausen, Gwyneth Walker, John Rutter and Morten Lauridsen. In this book, Stroope speaks on his experiences with composing, strategies for composing and instructing young composers.

Awards and honors 2004 Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. Australian-American Fulbright Douglas R. McEwen award for National Choral Excellence Doug and Nickie Burns Endowed Chair in Choral Music Regents Distinguished Research Award 2018 Oklahoma State University Eminent Professor Award 2020 Honorary member of ANDCI association of Italian choir directors.