Stephen Lawrence Pruslin (16 April 1940 – 25 September 2022) was an American pianist and librettist who relocated to London in the 1970s to work with

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music ...

and

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

Early life and career

Born in New York, Pruslin was already playing the piano when 3 or 4 years old. Pruslin studied at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

in Waltham, Massachusetts and (from 1961) at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, graduating in 1963. He studied composition with

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher, and writer on music. He had started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved towards complex harmonies and postromanticism, a ...

and his piano teachers were Luise Vosgerchian and

Eduard Steuermann Eduard Steuermann (June 18, 1892, Sambor, Austria-Hungary – November 11, 1964, New York City) was an Austrian-born American pianist and composer. Steuermann studied piano with Vilém Kurz at the Lemberg Conservatory and Ferruccio Busoni in ...

(the

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, ...

pupil who played in the first performance of Pierrot Lunaire). A scholarship from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

two years later enabled him to relocate to London, where in 1965 he became a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble the Pierrot Players (later renamed the

Fires of London The Fires of London, founded as the Pierrot Players, was a British chamber music ensemble which was active from 1965 to 1987. The Pierrot Players was founded by Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Hacker, and Stephen Pruslin.''Who’s Who 1975'', page 13 ...

) along with Maxwell Davies, Birtwistle and

Alan Hacker Alan Ray Hacker (30 September 1938 – 16 April 2012) was an English clarinettist, conductor, and music professor. Biography He was born in Dorking, Surrey in 1938, the son of Kenneth and Sybil Hacker.''Who’s Who 1975'', page 1302, (A&C Black ...

. He also sometimes played with the

Melos Ensemble The Melos Ensemble is a group of musicians who started in 1950 in London to play chamber music in mixed instrumentation of string instruments, wind instruments and others. Benjamin Britten composed the chamber music for his ''War Requiem'' for the ...

. His debut solo recital took place in 1970 and he toured widely as a soloist. Whilst still a Graduate student, Pruslin had performed live recitals in New York City, and elsewhere in the USA, with the American soprano

Bethany Beardslee Bethany Beardslee (born December 25, 1925) is an American soprano. She is particularly noted for her collaborations with major 20th-century composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, George Perle, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies ...

. In the UK he had performed with violinist

Emanuel Hurwitz Emanuel Hurwitz (7 May 1919 – 19 November 2006) was a British violinist. He was born in London to parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry. He started playing the violin when he was five years old, and took up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of ...

Collaboration and composition

Pruslin wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's chamber opera ''

Punch and Judy Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr Punch and one other ...

'' (1968), and for Martin Butler's "operatic adventure story" ''Craig's Progress'', premiered by Mecklenburgh Opera in June 1994 and adapted for radio broadcast by BBC Radio 3 the following year. He was the author of a short study of Maxwell Davies. Other composers championed by Pruslin included

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...

(especially ''

Night Fantasies ''Night Fantasies'' is a 1980 composition for piano by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the pianists Charles Rosen, Paul Jacobs, Gilbert Kalish, and Ursula Oppens, all to whom the work is dedicated. It was gi ...

'', 1980), and Henze. Maxwell Davies wrote his Piano Sonata for Pruslin in 1981, and he subsequently recorded it, alongside piano works by

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; 10 August 1932 – 26 August 2024) was a German-born English composer of contemporary classical music and academic teacher. A long-time professor of music at the University of Cambridge, Goehr influenced many notable c ...

. He gave the first performance of ''Piano Polyptich'' by Philip Grange on 26 June 1993 at the

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festi ...

. His other recordings include performances of contemporary British clarinet music with Roger Heaton, and chamber music by Birtwistle, Davies and Goehr with Heaton and the Kreutzer String Quartet. As a composer Pruslin wrote scores for theatre, film and television, including some arrangements for

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...

's ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'' (1979) and the musical sequences for

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received #Awa ...

's play ''Beethoven's Tenth'' (1983), which was produced on Broadway and in London.

Milein Cosman Emilie Cosman, known as Milein Cosman, (31 March 1921 – 21 November 2017) was a German-born British artist. She was best known for her graphic work of leading cultural figures, dancers and musicians in action, such as Francis Bacon, Mikhail Bar ...

drew portraits of him in 1981. In 1989 Pruslin appeared in an episode of the ITV television drama series ''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', or simply ''Poirot'' (), is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2020. The ITV show is based on many of Agatha Christie's famous crime fiction series, wh ...

'' as a pianist.

Death

He died on September 25, 2022, at the age of 82, survived by his partner of 37 years, the violinist Charles Renwick.''Slipped Disc'', 6 October, 2022
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pruslin, Stephen 1940 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American classical pianists American male classical pianists Musicians from New York (state) Brandeis University alumni Princeton University alumni Pupils of Eduard Steuermann