Stewart Wallace (born 1960,

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

) is an American

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 def ...

and

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

Biography

The son of Marsha J. Wallace and Dr. Sidney Wallace, Wallace is one of three siblings in his family. Wallace attended the University of Texas at Austin. Without formal training in composition, Wallace has spent much of his career composing experimental

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s, from the dance-centered ''Kabbalah'' (1989) to the surrealist ''Hopper's Wife'' (1992). Two of his operas have been premiered at the Houston Grand Opera, '' Where's Dick?'' (1989) and ''

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...

'' (1995). His opera '' The Bonesetter's Daughter'' is based on the

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

of the same name by Amy Tan, who wrote the opera's libretto. ''The Bonesetter's Daughter'' premiered at

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

in 2008. In 2010, Wallace was in a bicycle accident that resulted in traumatic brain injury and prevented him from composing, for a five-year period. Wallace and Korie prepared a revised 2-act version of ''Harvey Milk'' for Opera Parallèle in San Francisco, who jointly commissioned the revision with

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 ...

, with an intended premiere performance run in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the postponement of this scheduled San Francisco production. The revised 2-act version of ''Harvey Milk'' received its premiere at

on 11 June 2022. Wallace married the US television journalist Dianne Festa in 1999.

References

External links

Official website of Stewart Wallace

Schott Music page on Stewart Wallace
1960 births 20th-century American classical composers American opera composers American male opera composers Jewish American classical composers Living people Musicians from Philadelphia 21st-century American classical composers Classical musicians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American Jews {{opera-bio-stub