Monday, February 15, 2016

Steven Stucky



Shocking news this morning that composer Steven Stucky has died at 66 of a brain tumor. No obit yet; Michael Cooper reported Stucky's death on Twitter.

I've heard and mostly liked several of his works in the last decade, including Radical Light, heard in 2007 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and The Stars and Roses at Berkeley Symphony. Alex Ross has posted the composer's Silent Spring. Tim Mangan has posted Stucky's Symphony.

All sympathies to Stucky's family, friends, students, and colleagues.

Update: Since I posted the above, a few stories have circulated about Stucky's sense of humor and honesty about himself as a composer; look around Facebook and likely Sequenza 21 and elsewhere for memories of the composer. He was a lovely man and colleague from all reports.

Some obits:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a shame! He gave so many pre-concert talks for the LA Phil, about all kinds of music, but especially new music, and was always informative and engaging, without any of that smarmy "music appreciation" pandering to the audience (I'm looking at you, Alan Chapman).

John Adams has partially taken over Stucky's role as new music advisor, but I don't think his taste is as broad as Stucky's, and he certainly doesn't have the time/availability to be as frequent and steady a presence as Stucky was.

Stucky's little opera The Classical Style is one of the smartest, and silliest, things I've ever seen. Ever since, I've been imagining what a full production would be like, with more rehearsal time, a bigger cast, and clever, flexible sets: maybe on a double bill with The Impresario. Fortunately, the first performance at Ojai is still on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1I0fbs554A

Lisa Hirsch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisa Hirsch said...

Trying again to make a clickable link:

The Classical Style, by Steven Stucky, libretto by Jeremy Denk.

Thanks, Rob.