Z. Randall Stroope

Last updated
Zane Randall Stroope
Born (1953-10-25) October 25, 1953 (age 68)
Albuquerque, New Mexico [1]
Occupation(s)Composer, Conductor
Website http://www.zrstroope.com

Zane Randall Stroope (born October 25, 1953) is an American composer and conductor. He has published more than 190 works, with: Oxford University Press, Carl Fischer, Alliance Music Publishing, Walton, Colla Voce, and Lorenz.

Contents

Biography

Stroope earned a master's degree in voice performance at the University of Colorado (Boulder) and his doctorate in conducting from Arizona State University. In an electronic publication, Stroope states that even though he had dabbled in composition since the age of ten, it was not until he wrote The Cloths of Heaven, and Inscription of Hope, that he began to gain recognition. He states, “I was quite fortunate to have written some works that found great attraction across the country. That sort of catapulted my career compositionally. I was soon being asked to write pieces and conduct those works with the groups that commissioned them. Through conducting, you learn about what works in composition. Both aspects of my career took hold, and I’ve never looked back. I’m busier today than I’ve ever been.” [2]

In addition to composing music and guest conducting, Stroope held Professor of Music positions at Oklahoma State University, Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. As a conductor, he regularly appears nationally and internationally in such venues as: Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Sopra Minerva (Rome), and the Kennedy Center.

Mentors and contemporaries

Cecil Effinger and Normand Lockwood, mentors of Stroope, are well-respected American composers. Effinger's Little Symphony No. 1 and Four Pastorales, arguably his most recognizable pieces, are performed by many ensembles across the U.S. and abroad. Normand Lockwood won the prestigious Prix de Rome, a scholarship given the select students within the arts, which allowed him to study in Rome.

Both Effinger and Lockwood were students of Nadia Boulanger, a student of Gabriel Fauré. Fauré was one of the greatest French composers of the twentieth century. Nadia Boulanger, became one of the most influential music theory teachers of the twentieth century, one of her first pupils being American composer Aaron Copland. Stroope credits Boulanger for his mentors' support of his creativity saying, “Efficiency of writing would be the main thing I took from my studies with Effinger. Boulanger didn’t try to replicate herself through her students; she let them be successful in their own way. As a result, Lockwood and Effinger were very open to different styles of music in my writing. It wasn’t a cookie cutter approach to composition.”

Morten Lauridsen, a colleague and friend of Stroope, is the professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and has been for more than thirty years. From 1994 to 2001 he held the position the composer-in-residence at the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Lauridsen, composer of works such as O magnum mysterium , Sure on this Shining Night, and Les Chansons des Roses, was named "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, President Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony. The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. While Stroope taught at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, Lauridsen held a residency and The Rowan University Concert Choir performed Lauridsen's works. During the concert, Morten Lauridsen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rowan University. Since then, Stroope and Lauridsen have continued to engage in collaborative projects. In 2010 and 2014, Lauridsen held residencies at Oklahoma State University similar to that at Rowan University.

Published material

Compositions (partial list of published works)

Books

Stroope contributed to the book Composers on Composing for Choir along with composers such as René Clausen, Gwyneth Walker, John Rutter and Morten Lauridsen. In this book, Stroope speaks on his experiences with composing, strategies for composing and instructing young composers. [3]

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

Morten Lauridsen American composer

Morten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he taught for 52 years until his retirement in 2019.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional chorus in Los Angeles, California, and one the resident companies of both The Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one of the three original resident companies of the Music Center of Los Angeles County. Grant Gershon has been its music director since 2001, replacing Paul Salamunovich.

David Conte American composer

David Conte is an American composer who has written over 150 works published by E.C. Schirmer, including six operas, a musical, works for chorus, solo voice, orchestra, chamber music, organ, piano, guitar, and harp. Conte has received commissions from Chanticleer, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Harvard University Chorus, the Men’s Glee Clubs of Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame, GALA Choruses from the cities of San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the Dayton Philharmonic, the Oakland Symphony, the Stockton Symphony, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, the American Guild of Organists, Sonoma City Opera, and the Gerbode Foundation. He was honored with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Brock Commission in 2007 for his work The Nine Muses, and in 2016 he won the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Art Song Composition Award for his work American Death Ballads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Whitacre</span> American composer, conductor, and speaker

Eric Edward Whitacre is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March 2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music. Its membership comprises approximately 22,000 choral directors representing over a million singers.

Rhodes Singers

The Rhodes Singers are a noted undergraduate choir from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, specializing in smaller, unaccompanied chamber music works. They are directed by Dr. William Skoog.

Dr. Richard Nance is an American musician. He is professor of music and conductor of the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, United States.

University of Pretoria Camerata

The University of Pretoria – Tuks Camerata is one of five choirs that the University of Pretoria, South Africa has on its campus. The other four are The UP OVUWA, The University of Pretoria Youth Choir, The University of Pretoria Jacaranda Children's Choir and the University of Pretoria Concert Choir. It is the official Choir of the University of Pretoria

The Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival is an annual event in which members of university choirs from all state capitals of Australia and the national capital Canberra meet for two weeks to rehearse, socialise and perform combined concerts. The Festival also serves as the annual conference of the member choirs of AICSA, the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association

Jo-Michael Scheibe Musical artist

Jo-Michael Scheibe is the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He serves as Professor of Choral and Sacred Music, teaching choral conducting and choral development. He formerly conducted the USC Chamber Singers. In 2008, he assumed a new post as National President-Elect of the American Choral Directors’ Association. No stranger to the ACDA, Scheibe previously served as the organization’s Western Division President (1991–1993), as well as National Repertoire and Standards Chairperson for Community Colleges (1980–1989). Ensembles under his leadership have sung at six national ACDA conventions, as well as two national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, and various regional and state conventions.

William Dehning Musical artist

Dr. William John Dehning was an American conductor, teacher, and author who spent almost his entire career in the collegiate realm. He was known primarily for his work as conductor of the University of Southern California Thornton Chamber Choir and as author of the book, Chorus Confidential: Decoding the Secrets of the Choral Art, published in 2003. Under his leadership, the Thornton Chamber Choir won seven prizes in international European competitions, including Grand Prizes in Varna, Bulgaria and Tours, France. After winning the choral competition with the USC Chamber Choir in Bulgaria, Dehning was awarded the Judges' Conducting Prize by a panel of ten judges in 1999. During his tenure, the ensemble also appeared at American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conventions six times, including nationals in 2001 and 2005. They also completed a tour of East Asia in 2006, performing at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. While at Northern Michigan University from 1970–1972, Dehning was the founder of the Marquette Choral Society, which is still active. Later, he was from 1985-1995 the founder/conductor of the California Choral Company, a semi-professional chamber chorus that attained a reputation in Europe as well as in the United States. As Chairman of the USC Department of Choral Music, Dehning was awarded the first annual Dean’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was also the 2007 recipient of the Thornton School's Ramo Award. Dehning was one of four founding members of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), which held its first national conference in San Antonio in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Forrest</span> American composer, pianist, educator, and music editor

Daniel Ernest Forrest Jr. is an American composer, pianist, educator, and music editor.

Paul Salamunovich

Paul Salamunovich KCSG was a Grammy-nominated, American conductor and educator.

Cecil Effinger was an American composer, oboist, and inventor.

Rosephanye Powell, pronounced ro-SEH-fuh-nee, is an American choral composer, singer, professor, and researcher.

<i>Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen</i> 2012 American documentary film

Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen is a 2012 documentary film about the American choral composer Morten Lauridsen,, National Medal of Arts recipient (2007) and most-performed living American choral composer.

The University of the Philippines Manila Chorale Musical artist

The UP Manila Chorale is the multi-awarded official performing group for choral music of the University of the Philippines Manila. Established in July 1992 by a few BA Behavioral Sciences students, the group aims to embody and represent the University locally and internationally through the art of choral music, serving as ambassadors of cultural goodwill by being the “voice of UP Manila to the world”. Presently, the group is led by their musical director, Emmanuel "Eman" P. de Leon Jr.

André Jerome Thomas is an American composer and conductor. He served as a professor of music at the College of Music at Florida State University and the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. In addition to his conducting and composition credits, Thomas is a published author, having written Way Over in Beulah Lan': Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual, and numerous journal articles.

Jake Runestad is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work in the genres of opera, orchestral music, choral music, and wind ensemble. One of his principal collaborators for musical texts has been the poet Todd Boss.

Edwin R. Fissinger was an American composer, conductor, scholar, and charter member of the ACDA.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Z. Randall Stroope Archived 2011-12-09 at the Wayback Machine . zrstroope.com.
  2. ↑ Acclaimed composer, conductor joins OSU . URL last accessed 2011-11-15.
  3. ↑ Wine, Thomas (2007). Composer on Composing for Choirs. G I A Publications, Incorporated. ISBN   1-57999-664-7
  4. ↑ http://acda.org/page.asp?page=brock_pieces Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved March 2016
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.