A reluctant yet uncompromising artist, Frank Stemper’s critically acclaimed music has been heard on the fringe of the world music scene for well over 30 years. His music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, voices and computer have found their way from his home in rural mid-America to half of the 50 United States and 20 foreign countries. His music was recently performed for audiences at Carnegie Hall (NYC), The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Symphony Center (Chicago), The Performing Arts Center (Milwaukee), as well as Paris, Budapest, San Francisco, Oxford - UK, and Shenyang - CHINA.  His long list of awards and honors include the George Ladd Prix de Paris, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and both a Grammy and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.  Moreover, Stemper’s reputation as an educator has lead to multiple “Guest Composer” residencies working with young composers in Mexico, France, Austria, Romania, Spain, and The Netherlands.

His is not easy music to categorize: Reviewers have noted it for being “…overly complex…” but also “…curiously accessible.” It has also been described as “…introspective, deeply personal music, with a sharp emotional trigger...” and music with “…deftly grinding gears, and twisting voicings, splintering colors, all fully inhabiting and advancing each dramatic moment.”  The late composer Lukas Foss called Stemper's music “inspiring.”  Lee Hyla noted Stemper’s huge song cycle, A Love Imagined  “…the dramatic shape is very effective, and, as ever, the harmonic and textural worlds are beautiful.”   Don Freund described the same piece as “…a masterpiece, a tremendously ambitious, deep, moving all-embracing experience.  Definitely the work of an important artist at the peak of his powers and inspiration.”

Stemper’s music, published exclusively through Stonehouse Press and recorded on many commercial record labels, doesn’t seem to fit into any established clique of musical expression. It is neither traditional nor experimental; it isn’t conservative or radically esoteric; and it is honest - lacking gimmicky techniques and flashy “selling” jargon. Stemper’s music is his and his alone.  His musical voice is simply modern, using the past, the present, and Stemper’s own sonic imagination to express his thoughts in the clearest language available. Truly, this composer’s music is so private that he often shies away from public discussions of it.

He has most recently written works for the preeminent soprano, Lucy Shelton, The Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players in New York City, and a consortium commission work for concert band and computer premiered at the Ussachevsky Computer Music Festival in Los Angeles.  He is currently writing a major piano work, which will be premiered in 2014 in New Zealand and Australia.  His music has also been presented at notable international music venues such as Teatro de Los Heroes (Mexico); Antiel Roman (Romania); Pannonalma Budapest (Hungary); Kulturhaus Dornbirn (Austria); Symphony Space, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Weill and Carnegie Halls (NYC); Symphony Center (Chicago); Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason (San Francisco); Uihlein Hall (Milwaukee); and The Kennedy Center (Washington DC); to name a few. 

Over the years he has maintained a consistent presence on the new music scene, often as a guest composer and/or performer at many international music festivals, such as Incontri Europei Con La Musica – Bergamo and Festival Spaziomusica – Cagliari, Italy; The Happening: New Music – Calgary, Canada; International De Musica Contemporanea – Alicante, Spain; Vancouver Contemporary Music Festival; Saptamina Internationala A Muzicii Noi, Zilele Muzicii Contemporane and the George Enescu International Festival of Contemporary Music – Bucharest, Romania; the Bregenzer Festspiele – Austria; etc.  His music is also frequently heard – often broadcast live – on the National Radio stations of Mexico, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania,Radio France, and the BBC. 

In addition to the above awards from the NEA and the Paris prize, his work has been supported by Meet the Composer, MTC – Global Connections, The American Music Center, The Rockefeller Fund for Music, The Ford Foundation, and the State Arts Councils of Illinois, California and New York, and 24 consecutive ASCAPlus Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.  Stemper has received nearly 40 commissions for new works from foundations, arts organizations, musicians, ensembles, and even foreign governments.  Stemper’s setting of two Shakespeare Love Sonnetts for chorus and piano solo, By Night My Mind, won the 2011 New York Viruoso Singers Competition.  He has served as Composer in Residence with many national and international ensembles and festivals, and he has been in demand as an inspiring teacher through his multiple invitations supported by the governments of Mexico (5 residencies), Romania (3), Austria (3), The Netherlands (2), and Spain (1).

Frank Stemper lives in Carbondale Illinois, where he and his wife raised their five children.  There he is has been Composer In Residence and Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he serves as Director of Graduate Studies.  He has also founded both the Center for Experimental Music and the Altgeld Chamber Players (with whom he sometimes serves as pianist), and is Co-producer of the annual Outside the Box new music festival.

–––––– Stonehouse Press

R E C O R D I N G S

Commercially Available

••Toot tooT (2002) on an Albany Records CD

by David Gier, trombone with David Greenhoe , trumpet and Shari Rhoads, piano.

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••So It Goes (1999) on Centaur Records CD by PASTICHE
Dave Scott, trumpet, Jan Fillmore Scott, clarinet, Fred Sahlmann, piano, Dave Walton, percussion.

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••Panic 2000 (2000) solo percussion & computer geneerated sounds

performed by Kevin Lucas on SOUNDCLOUD

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••Clarinet Piece (1985) for solo clarinet,

performed by Eric Mandat on Advance Records' "The Extended Clarinet."

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••Chameleon(1984) for clarinet, string trio and piano,

performed by The Almont Ensemble, with the late Charlotte Zelkaon on Opus One Records, Inc.
This recording also includes
••Two Pieces for Baby (1980) for solo 'cello, performed by Tom Flaherty.

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••Panic 2000(2000) solo percussion & computer geneerated sounds

performed by Kevin Lucas on Reception Records' "Carpe Noctem" by the "Dead Musicans' Society.

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New CDs COMING SOON:

••••Complete Works for Piano (

Performed and Recorded by Junghwa Lee, pianist

••••Recent Chamber Music by F. Stemper.

Performed and Recorded by Various performers

The Altgeld Chamber Players & Celliola

••••New American Music for Viola (

Performed and Recorded by Jacob Tews, violist