Stephen Joel Albert (6 February 1941 – 27 December 1992)[1] was an Americancomposer. He is best known for his Pulitzer Prize winningSymphony No. 1RiverRun (1983) and hisCello Concerto (1990), written forYo-Yo Ma. He died suddenly in a 1992 automobile accident, having just sketched out hisSecond Symphony. The work was subsequently completed bySebastian Currier, and his death sparked musical tributes from composer colleagues such asAaron Jay Kernis andChristopher Rouse.
Born inNew York City, Albert began his musical training on the piano, French horn, and trumpet as a youngster. He first studied composition at the age of 15 with Elie Siegmeister,[2] and enrolled two years later at theEastman School of Music, where he studied withDarius Milhaud andBernard Rogers (1958–1960) Following composition lessons inStockholm withKarl-Birger Blomdahl, Albert studied withJoseph Castaldo at thePhiladelphia Musical Academy (BM 1962); in 1963 he worked with George Rochberg at theUniversity of Pennsylvania. In 1965 he won aRome Fellowship to study in Rome at theAmerican Academy.[3]
From 1985 to 1988 he worked as theSeattle Symphony'scomposer-in-residence.[1][4]
His notable students includedDaniel Asia andDan Coleman.
Albert was killed in an automobile accident inTruro, Massachusetts onCape Cod on 27 December 1992.[5][6][7]
Stephen Albert was awardedGuggenheim Fellowships[8] for Music Composition in 1968 and 1978. He won the 1985Pulitzer Prize for Music for hisSymphony No. 1,RiverRun.[5][6] He posthumously won aGrammy Award in 1995 in theBest Classical Contemporary Composition category for hisCello Concerto as performed byYo-Yo Ma[9] in a 1990 recording with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman.[10]
Aaron Jay Kernis dedicated his 1993 composition forpiano quartetStill Movement with Hymn in memory of Albert.[11] The slow movement ofChristopher Rouse's 1994Symphony No. 2 is also dedicated to the memory of Albert, who was a colleague and close friend of Rouse.[12]
A number of Albert's works were based onJames Joyce texts.Finnegans Wake inspired three of Albert's pieces:To Wake the Dead,TreeStone, andSymphony RiverRun.[13] Albert's paired "Distant Hills" ariasFlower of the Mountain andSun's Heat were based onUlysses, and the song "Ecce Puer" from Joyce's poem of the same name.[14]
His famousConcerto for Violoncello and Orchestra started out as a request by the Baltimore Symphony in 1987 for a 15-minute orchestral piece. In 1988 the commission was changed to a concerto for Yo-Yo Ma. The composer credited Ma with his help completing the work. Albert started with material drawn two earlier works from 1988, "Anthem and Processionals" and "The Stone Harp." He started the composition in 1989 and finished in 1990. The premiere was on 31 March 1990 and featured Yo-Yo Ma along with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Zinman. A revised version was featured on a 1993 album, "The New York Album."[14]
According to Yo-Yo Ma, the composition was a "kind of catharsis." It incorporated struggles in his life, including his writer's blocks and the death of his father. The work is dedicated to the memory of his father.[14]
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