Stephen Paulus (August 24, 1949 – October 19, 2014) was an American Grammy Award winning

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, best known for his

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s and

choral music A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

. His style is essentially tonal, and

melodic A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinat ...

and romantic by nature. His best-known piece is his 1982 opera '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'', one of several operas he composed for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' to call him "a young man on the road to big things". He received grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and Guggenheim Foundation and won the prestigious

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Friedheim Prize. He was commissioned by such notable organizations as the

Minnesota Opera Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliver ...

, the

Chamber Music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

Society of

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Typically four operas, all sung in English, are presented each season, which runs from late May to late June. Performances are accompanied by th ...

, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, the American Composers Orchestra, the

Dale Warland Singers The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music an ...

, the

Harvard Glee Club The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the H ...

and the New York Choral Society. Composer biography, from his web site (Accessed 15 December 2006) Paulus was a passionate advocate for the works and careers of his colleagues. He co-founded the American Composers Forum in 1973, the largest composer service organization in the U.S., and served as the Symphony and Concert Representative on the

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

Board of Directors from 1990 until his death (from complications following a stroke in July 2013) in 2014.

Biography

Paulus was born in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

, but his family moved to Minnesota when he was two. After graduating from

Alexander Ramsey High School Roseville Area High School (RAHS) is a public high school in Roseville, Minnesota, United States. It serves Roseville and the surrounding communities of Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Maplewood, and Shoreview. RAHS is ...

in Roseville, MN, he attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where he studied with Paul Fetler and eventually earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in composition in 1978. By 1983, he was named the Composer-in-Residence at the

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Em ...

, and in 1988 he was also named to the same post at the

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center. History Though earlier organizations bearing the same name date b ...

, whose then-conductor Robert Shaw commissioned numerous choral works from Paulus for Shaw's eponymous vocal ensemble. After the premiere of his second opera, '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'', he began a fruitful collaboration with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis that would result in four more operas. In 1997, he was awarded the

Brock Commission The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music. Its membership comprises approximately 22,000 ...

from the American Choral Directors Association. In a career which encompassed more than forty years of composition his output came to include over 450 works for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, opera, solo voice, piano, guitar, organ, and band. Paulus lived in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

area. On July 4, 2013, Paulus suffered a stroke. He died from medical complications on October 19, 2014, aged 65.

Major works

Paulus's output was eclectic and varied, incorporating works for chorus,

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, solo singer, and various combinations thereof. His choral music represented his most diverse body of work, ranging from elaborate multi-part works like ''Visions from Hildegard'' to brief

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...

s and

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s. With nearly 60 orchestral works to his credit, Paulus was distinguished by his tenures as a Composer in Residence with the orchestras of Atlanta, Minnesota, Tucson and Annapolis. Conductors who have premièred his works include

Rollo Dilworth Rollo A. Dilworth'' (born July 31st, 1970) is an American choral composer, arranger, conductor, and music educator from St. Louis, Missouri. Education Early education Dilworth, as a young boy, was impassioned by singing experiences in his schoo ...

Christoph von Dohnányi Christoph von Dohnányi (; born 8 September 1929) is a German conductor. Biography Youth and World War II Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to Hans von Dohnanyi, a German jurist of Hungarian ancestry, and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle ...

, C. William Harwood,

Sir Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conducting, conductors". Gramophone (magazine), Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another com ...

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus O ...

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

, and

Osmo Vänskä Osmo Antero Vänskä (born 28 February 1953) is a Finnish conductor, clarinetist, and composer. Biography Vänskä started his musical career as an orchestral clarinetist with the Turku Philharmonic (1971–76). He then became the principal cla ...

. He has been commissioned by the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Sev ...

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

Tucson Symphony Orchestra The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, or TSO, is the primary professional orchestra of Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1928, when the season consisted of just two concerts, the TSO is the oldest continuously running performing arts organization in the South ...

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) is a full-time professional chamber orchestra based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In collaboration with five Artistic Partners, the orchestra's musicians present more than 130 concerts and educational programs ea ...

, and many others. In 2011 he also co-wrote a Concerto "Timepiece" with his son, Greg Paulus, for the

. Paulus has written over 150 works for chorus ranging from his Holocaust oratorio, ''To Be Certain of the Dawn'', recorded by the

on the BIS label, to the poignant anthem, "Pilgrims' Hymn," sung at the funerals of U.S. Presidents

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

and a setting of the Stabat Mater for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus. His works have received thousands of performances and recordings from such groups as the New York Choral Society, L.A. Master Chorale, the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Robert Shaw Festival Singers,

VocalEssence VocalEssence is a non-profit choral music organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each year the organization presents a series of concerts featuring the 130-voice VocalEssence Chorus and its core group, a 32-voice professional mixed chorus ca ...

, the Chicago Master Singers and

. Notable works for vocalist and orchestra include commissions for

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...

Deborah Voigt Deborah Voigt (born August 4, 1960) is an American dramatic soprano who has sung roles in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss. Biography and career Early life and education Debbie Joy Voigt was born into a religious Southern Baptist family ...

Samuel Ramey Samuel Edward Ramey (born March 28, 1942) is an American operatic bass. At the height of his career, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing t ...

Elizabeth Futral Susan Elizabeth Futral (born September 27, 1963 in Johnston County, North Carolina) is an American coloratura soprano who has won acclaim (as both singer and actress) throughout the United States as well as in Europe, South America, and Japan. ...

Håkan Hagegård Nils Olov Håkan Hagegård (born 25 November 1945)

and Evelyn Lear. Instrumental soloists range from

Doc Severinsen Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American retired jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. Early life Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, to Minnie Mae (1897–1998) a ...

and

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including parti ...

to Robert McDuffie,

William Preucil William Preucil (born January 30, 1958) is an American violinist. During a musical career spanning several decades, he served as concertmaster for four major American orchestras, most notably the Cleveland Orchestra from 1995, until he was dismiss ...

Lynn Harrell Lynn Harrell (January 30, 1944 – April 27, 2020) was an American classical cellist. Known for the "penetrating richness" of his sound, Harrell performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with major orchestras o ...

and

Cynthia Phelps Cynthia Phelps (born 1961 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California) is an American violist whose versatile career involves work as a chamber musician, solo artist, and orchestral musician. Phelps is currently the Principal Violist of the New York P ...

. Paulus's most popular works may be two short choral anthems, one religious, "Pilgrims' Hymn," and a non-religious but far from nakedly secular composition, "The Road Home." "Pilgrims' Hymn" was part of a one-act opera, ''The Three Hermits'', commissioned by the House of Hope Presbyterian Church of St. Paul, MN, where it premiered in 1997. "The Road Home" was commissioned by Minnesota's Dale Warland Singers in 2001 and is based on an original tune found in the 1835 ''Southern Harmony Songbook''. Both represent Paulus's frequent work with the poet Michael Dennis Browne, Browne and Paulus working back and forth with words and music until they had given each composition a gem-like sheen. "Pilgrims' Hymn" is a favorite of church choirs and choral groups worldwide, while "The Road Home" appears on the programs of countless high school and concert choirs everywhere. YouTube amply documents many performances of each work.

Opera

Paulus was well known for his operas, which are often described as "dramatic and lyrical" and are notable for "lush" orchestra writing. Paulus's operas include: *''The Village Singer'', opera in one act (1979) *'' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1982) *''The Woodlanders'', a "romantic tragedy" after

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

(1985) *''Harmoonia'', an opera for children (1991) *''The Three Hermits'', a "church opera" (1997) *''Summer'', after a novella by

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

(1999) *''

Hester Prynne Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel ''The Scarlet Letter''. She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors. The character has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in ...

at Death'', after

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

(2004) *''The Star Gatherer'' (2006) *''The Shoemaker'' (2012) *'' Heloise and

Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...

'', with a libretto by

Frank Corsaro Frank Corsaro (December 22, 1924, New York City, New York – November 11, 2017, Suwanee, GeorgiaRobert ViagasNight of the Iguana Director Frank Corsaro Is Dead at 92/ref>) was one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Bro ...

*''The Woman at Otowi Crossing'', which deals with spiritual awareness and Native Americans

Orchestra

*''Lunar Maria'', for orchestra (1976) *''Spectra'' for Small Orchestra (1980) *''Translucent Landscapes'' (1982) *Concerto for Orchestra (1983) *''Seven Short Pieces for Orchestra'' (1984) *''Ordway Overture'' (1985) *''Reflections: Four Movements on a Theme of Wallace Stevens'', for Chamber Orchestra (1985) *Suite from ''The Woodlanders'', for orchestra (1985) *Suite from ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'', for orchestra (1982; arr. 1986) *Symphony (No. 1) in Three Movements ''Soliloquy'' (1986) *''Ground Breaker'' Overture (1987) *Concertante for orchestra (1989) *Symphony (No. 2) for Strings (1989) *''Night Speech'' for Baritone and Orchestra (1989) *''Street Music'' (1990) *Sinfonietta (No. 1) (1991) *Suite from ''Harmoonia'', for Narrator and Full Orchestra (1991) *''Manhattan Sinfonietta'' (Sinfonietta No. 2) (1995) *''Concerto in the American Style'', for orchestra (1998) *''The Age of American Passions'', for symphony orchestra (1999) *''Dialogues'' for orchestra (2001) *''The Five Senses'', for Narrator and Orchestra (2003) *''Paean'' for orchestra (2004) *''Sea Portraits'', Four Pieces for orchestra (Sunrise - Sailing - Storm - Moonlight on the Sea) (2004) *''Behold This Man, George Washington'', for Narrator and Orchestra (2005) *''Erotic Spirits'', for Soprano and Orchestra (or Piano) (2004–06) *''Impressions for orchestra'' (2008) *Introduction to ''Sweep Dreams'', for orchestra (2008) *''Dylan Thomas Songs'' (Three Songs on texts by Dylan Thomas), for Soprano and Orchestra (2009) *''Prayers and Remembrances'', for Mixed Chorus and Orchestra (2011) *''TimePiece'', for Jazz Soloists and Orchestra (2011) *''Voices from the Gallery

Concertos

Piano

*Concerto (No. 1) for Piano and Symphony Orchestra (2002) *Concerto (No. 2) for Piano and Concert Band (2005)

Violin

*Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Symphony Orchestra (1987) *Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (1992) *Concerto No. 3 for Violin and Symphony Orchestra (2012), dedicated to

Organ

*Concerto (No. 1) for Organ, String Orchestra, Timpani and Percussion (1992) *Concerto (No. 2) for Organ, Chorus and Orchestra (2002) *''Grand Concerto'' (Concerto No. 3) for Organ and Orchestra (premiered in 2004) *Concerto No. 4 for Organ and Symphony Orchestra (2003)

Other instruments

*Divertimento for Harp and Chamber Orchestra (1983) *''Ice Fields'' (Concerto) for Guitar and Orchestra (1990) *Concerto for Trumpet (in B-flat) and Orchestra (1991), commissioned and premiered by

*Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (premiered in 1993) *Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra ''Three Places of Enlightenment'' (1995) *Concerto for Two Trumpets and Orchestra (2003) - also arranged for Two Trumpets and Concert Band (2007) *''Bravo Bells'' (2003), for

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

*Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2009), written for

*Double Concerto for Piano and Organ with Strings and Percussion (listed as "in preparation" in 2010 ; possibly unfinished at the composer's death in 2014)

Organ

Solo

*A Refined Reflection *Blithely Breezing Along, from ''Baronian Suite'' *King David's Dance *Meditations On The Spirit *Organic Romp *Three Temperaments *Toccata *Triptych

Duet

*Paean *The Triumph of the Saint *Cathedral Fanfare

References

External links

StephenPaulus.com
June 10, 1988 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paulus, Stephen 1949 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American opera composers American classical composers Classical musicians from Minnesota Classical musicians from New Jersey Composers for carillon Male opera composers Musicians from Summit, New Jersey National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Roseville Area High School alumni University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni