Stephen Chatman (born 28 February 1950) is an American-born Canadian composer residing in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

. His compositions have been performed across Canada and in the United States.

Early life and education

Chatman was born in

Faribault, Minnesota Faribault ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately south of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highway ...

, and studied with

Joseph R. Wood Joseph Wood (May 12, 1915 – June 3, 2000) was an American composer and music educator. He was a faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he taught music theory and composition from 1950 until his retirement in 1985. He perfor ...

and

Walter Aschaffenburg Walter E. Aschaffenburg (1927–2005) was a German-born American composer, who for most of his career taught composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. One commentator noted that he "employed the 12-tone system in some of his works, his scores ...

at the

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of ...

and with

Ross Lee Finney Ross Lee Finney Junior (December 23, 1906–February 4, 1997) was an American composer who taught for many years at the University of Michigan. Life and career Born in Wells, Minnesota, Finney received his early training at Carleton College ...

, Leslie Bassett,

William Bolcom William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. H ...

, and Eugene Kurtz at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

, completing a D.M.A. degree in 1977. He also received a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

grant for study with

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

at the Hochschule für Musik in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

in 1974.

Career

In 1976, Chatman joined the faculty of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, in

. He composed a number of musical works in the 1980s, including the suite ''There Is Sweet Music There'' for chorus and oboe, and the choral work ''Due North''. Chatman became Head of the Composition Division of the UBC School of Music in 1977 and was promoted to Professor in 1987. He was named a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

in July 2012. In 2010 his composition "Magnificat" was his third nomination for a Juno Award. He has received three BMI Awards to Student Composers and four Western Canadian Music Awards for Outstanding Composition. In 2017, an album of Chatman's compositions, ''Dawn of Night'', sung by the University of Toronto MacMillan Singers, was released by Centrediscs. His comic opera ''Choir Practice'', created with Tara Wohlberg, was performed by the University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble.

Notable students

John Burge John David Bryson Burge (born 2 January 1961) is a Canadian composer, music educator, and pianist. He has won a number of awards for his compositions, including the Alberta Culture Award (1982), the William Erving Fairclough Scholarship (198 ...

, Richard Covey, Arne Eigenfeldt, John Estacio, Melissa Hui, Jocelyn Morlock, Jason Nett, Larry Nickel,

John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...

, and

Rui Shi Zhuo Rui Shi Zhuo (, born 1956) is a Chinese-born Canadian composer, based in British Columbia. He has been commissioned by the Canada Council, and has written music for an animated film. He has been composer-in-residence for the Vancouver Chinese ...

References

* Footnotes

External links

Biography on the composer's homepage.Stephen Chatman
''AllMusic''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatman, Stephen Canadian classical composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers 1950 births Living people Members of the Order of Canada University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen Canadian male classical composers 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century Canadian male musicians 21st-century Canadian male musicians Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni Fulbright alumni