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The music of Frank Stemper has been described as being both “overly complex” and “curiously accessible.” These contrasting descriptions accurately suggest a style that is difficult to categorize and a musical voice that is both original and deeply personal. (SEVEN) SEPARATE WAYS, reviewed in the Romanian Cultural Publication, ACTUALITATEA MUZICALA, in Feb. 2007,states, "...through his particular language he succeeds in finding a way of communicating with a less informed audience without making any stylistic concessions to the modern of our epoch."

Stemper's music, also described as “intensely dramatic” with “large sweeping gestures” and a "healthy sense of humor,“ is obviously not composed for what Samuel Barber referred to as the "minority elite!"   It does, however, always get a strong reaction: Upon hearing his 2005 song cycle, A LOVE IMAGINED, Composer/Conductor/Pianist Lukas Foss commented, “It’s like a piano concerto with recitative. No. 4 is indeed most effective, but they are all interesting – inspiring.”  Composer Lee Hyla said, “…I think the dramatic shape is very effective, and, as ever, the harmonic and textural worlds are beautiful.”  Composer Don Freund wrote, “A Love Imagined is 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 work has received performances by musicians and ensembles across the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico, England, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Ukraine, Cyprus and Japan. His music has been premiered at venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D. C., Carnegie Hall in New York City, Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee, Antiel Roman in Bucharest, Teatro de Los Heroes in Mexico, the Hothouse and South End Music Works in Chicago, Pannonhalma in Budapest, Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason in San Francisco, and Kulturhaus in Dornbirn, to name a few.  Stemper’s compositions have been heard on the Wisconsin Contemporary Music Forum, the Canadian Music Centre, Sonar Plexis – Berkeley, Music From Almost Yesterday - Milwaukee, Earplay – San Francisco, NACUSA  and Celliola – Los Angeles, Music From This Century and Outside the Box - Carbondale,  Composer’s Showcase – Urbana-Champaign, and the National Radio Networks of Romania, Hungary, and Cypress.  His music also makes regular appearances during international new music festivals such as the Festival Internacional De Musica Contemporánea in Alicante, Spain; the Incontri Europei Con La Musica – XXII in Bergamo, Italy; Bregenzer Festspiele at the Landeskonservatorium Feldkirch/Kapelle, Austria; Vladmir Ussachevsky Computer Music Festival in Los Angeles; Saptamina Internationala A Muzicii Noi in Bucharest, Romania; and the XV FESTIVAL DE MARZO 2004” in the courtyard of the C. C. U. Quinta Gameros, Chihuahua, Mexico.  Larger works have been performed by the Jungendsinfonieorchester Dornbirn – Austria, Romanian Radio Orchestra, the Utrecht Conservatorium Orchest, The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Bacau Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinónica in Mexico, and on several programs sponsored by the ISCM - International Society for Contemporary Music.

This continuous activity has earned 27 Commissions from foundations, private sponsors and ensembles, three Meet the Composer Stipends, four Artist Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, two Artistic Achievement Awards from Phi Kappa Phi, the Hertz and other fellowships, 20 consecutive Standard – ASCAPlus Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, grants from the Ford Foundation, Meet the Composer Global Connections, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Fund for Music, the American Music Center, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.  In addition to being awarded the 1981 George Ladd Prix de Paris, which supported a two year residency in Paris, France, he has received support in the form of commissions and/or residencies from the governments of Austria (3), Romania (3), Mexico (5), and Holland (2). He has received 24 invitations to serve as Guest Composer for various festivals or educational settings, and there are eight professional recordings (2 vinyl, 6 CD’s) on various labels of his work, with more recent recordings pending.

Stemper’s principal teachers were Composer Andrew Imbrie (UC-Berkeley), theorist David Lewin (SUNY-Stony Brook) and pianist Robert Silverman (UBC-Vancouver), as well as composers Olly Wilson, Edwin Dugger, Seymour Shifrin, John Downey and Betsy Jolas. 

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