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

s and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

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 federa ...

and Guggenheim Foundation and won the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize. He was commissioned by such notable organizations as the Minnesota Opera, 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 num ...

Society of Lincoln Center,

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 ...

, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, the American Composers Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, the Harvard Glee Club 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 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, but his family moved to Minnesota when he was two. After graduating from Alexander Ramsey High School 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. in composition in 1978. By 1983, he was named the Composer-in-Residence at the Minnesota Orchestra, 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 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 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 anthems and a cappella motets. 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, Christoph von Dohnányi,

C. William Harwood C. William Harwood (March 14, 1948, Richmond, Virginia - April 26, 1984, Little Rock, Arkansas) was an American conductor. Chiefly remembered for his work as an opera conductor, he notably conducted the Houston Grand Opera's groundbreaking 1977 ...

, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, and Osmo Vänskä. He has been commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra,

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 ...

, Minnesota Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many others. In 2011 he also co-wrote a Concerto "Timepiece" with his son, Greg Paulus, for the Minnesota Orchestra. Paulus has written over 150 works for chorus ranging from his Holocaust oratorio, ''To Be Certain of the Dawn'', recorded by the Minnesota Orchestra on the BIS label, to the poignant anthem, "Pilgrims' Hymn," sung at the funerals of U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan 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 The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.Sabatier, Paul ''Life o ...

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, the Chicago Master Singers and Dale Warland Singers. Notable works for vocalist and orchestra include commissions for Thomas Hampson, Deborah Voigt, Samuel Ramey, Elizabeth Futral, Håkan Hagegård and

Evelyn Lear Evelyn Shulman Lear (January 8, 1926 – July 1, 2012) was an American operatic soprano. Between 1959 and 1992, she appeared in more than forty operatic roles, appeared with every major opera company in the United States and won a Grammy Award in ...

. Instrumental soloists range from Doc Severinsen and Leo Kottke to

Robert McDuffie Robert McDuffie is an American violinist. He has played as a soloist with many of the major orchestras around the world including those of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minnesota, Hou ...

, William Preucil, Lynn Harrell and Cynthia Phelps. 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 Wo ...

(1985) *''Harmoonia'', an opera for children (1991) *''The Three Hermits'', a "church opera" (1997) *''Summer'', after a novella by Edith Wharton (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 (2004) *''The Star Gatherer'' (2006) *''The Shoemaker'' (2012) *'' Heloise and Abelard'', with a libretto by Frank Corsaro *''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) *''Ref