Stephen Albert was an American composer.

Biography

Born in New York City, Albert began his musical training on the piano, French horn, and trumpet as a youngster. He first studied composition at the age of 15 with Elie Siegmeister, and enrolled two years later at the Eastman School of Music

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

, where he studied with Bernard Rogers

Bernard Rogers

Bernard Rogers was an American composer.Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloch, Percy Goetschius, and Nadia Boulanger. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Hartt School, and the Eastman School of Music...

. Following composition lessons in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 with Karl-Birger Blomdahl

Karl-Birger Blomdahl

Karl-Birger Blomdahl was a Swedish composer and conductor born in Växjö. He was educated in biochemistry, but was primarily active in music and by his experimental compositions he became one of the big names in Swedish modernism. His teachers included Hilding Rosenberg...

, Albert studied with Joseph Castaldo

Joseph Castaldo

Joseph Castaldo was an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music....

 at the Philadelphia Musical Academy (BM 1962); in 1963 he worked with George Rochberg at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

.

His notable students include Daniel Asia

Daniel Asia

Daniel Asia is an American composer.Daniel Asia was born in Seattle, Washington, in the United States of America. He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale University School of Music...

.

Albert was killed in an automobile accident on Cape Cod

Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

 in December 1992.

Awards and honors

Stephen Albert won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 in Music for his symphony RiverRun. He won a Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 in 1995 in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition

The Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition was first awarded in 1961. This award was not presented from 1967 to 1984.The award has had several minor name changes:...

 category for "Cello Concerto" as performed by Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

.

The slow movement and emotional core of Christopher Rouse's Second Symphony, 1993, is dedicated to the memory of Stephen Albert, who was a colleague and close friend of Rouse's. The work is recorded on TELARC CD-80452, issued in 1997.

Orchestral

• Anthems and Processionals (1988) - 16 minutes
• Into Eclipse (chamber with voice version) (1981) - 30 minutes
• Symphony No. 1 RiverRun (1983) - 33 minutes
• Symphony No. 2 (1992) - 30 minutes (orchestration completed by Sebastian Currier
  Sebastian Currier
  Sebastian Currier is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007.-Life:...
  
  )
• Tapioca Pudding (1991) - 2 minutes

Concertante

• Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1990) - 30 minutes
• Distant Hills (orchestra version) (1989) - 31 minutes
• Flower of the Mountain from “Distant Hills” (orchestra version) (1985) - 16 minutes
• In Concordiam (1986) - 17 minutes
• Into Eclipse (orchestra with voice version) (1981) - 30 minutes
• Sun’s Heat from “Distant Hills” (orchestra version) (1989) - 15 minutes
• Wind Canticle (1991) - 14 minutes
• Wolf Time (1968) - 20 minutes

Ensemble (7 or more players)

• Distant Hills (chamber version) (1989) - 31 minutes
• Flower of the Mountain from “Distant Hills” (chamber version) (1985) - 16 minutes
• Sun’s Heat from “Distant Hills” (chamber version) (1989) - 15 minutes
• TreeStone (1983) - 45 minutes

Vocal

• Ecce Puer (1992) - 6 minutes
• Rilke Song - On Nights Like This (1991) - 5 minutes
• The Stone Harp (1988) - 14 minutes
• Wedding Songs (1964) - 10 minutes

External links

• G. Schirmer: Stephen Albert Composer profile and work list
• Art of the States: Stephen Albert To Wake the Dead (1978) complete work in streaming audio with accompanying program notes

Interviews

• Stephen Albert interview by Bruce Duffie, December 9, 1990