Stephen Paulus

On July 4, 2013, Paulus suffered a stroke. He died from medical complications on October 19, 2014, aged 65.

With nearly 60 orchestral works to his credit, Paulus was distinguished by his tenures as a Composer in Residence with the orchestras of Atlanta, Minnesota, Tucson and Annapolis. Conductors who have premièred his works include Rollo Dilworth, Christoph von Dohnányi, C. William Harwood, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, and Osmo Vänskä. He has been commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many others. In 2011 he also co-wrote a Concerto "Timepiece" with his son, Greg Paulus, for the Minnesota Orchestra.

Paulus's most popular works may be two short choral anthems, one religious, "Pilgrims' Hymn," and a non-religious but far from nakedly secular composition, "The Road Home." "Pilgrims' Hymn" was part of a one-act opera, The Three Hermits, commissioned by the House of Hope Presbyterian Church of St. Paul, MN, where it premiered in 1997. "The Road Home" was commissioned by Minnesota's Dale Warland Singers in 2001 and is based on an original tune found in the 1835 Southern Harmony Songbook. Both represent Paulus's frequent work with the poet Michael Dennis Browne, Browne and Paulus working back and forth with words and music until they had given each composition a gem-like sheen. "Pilgrims' Hymn" is a favorite of church choirs and choral groups worldwide, while "The Road Home" appears on the programs of countless high school and concert choirs everywhere. YouTube amply documents many performances of each work.

His best-known piece is his 1982 opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, one of several operas he composed for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted The New York Times to call him "a young man on the road to big things". He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Foundation and won the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize. He was commissioned by such notable organizations as the Minnesota Opera, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, the American Composers Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, the Harvard Glee Club and the New York Choral Society.

Paulus was born in Summit, New Jersey, but his family moved to Minnesota when he was two. After graduating from Alexander Ramsey High School in Roseville, MN, he attended the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Paul Fetler and eventually earned a Ph.D. in composition in 1978. By 1983, he was named the Composer-in-Residence at the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1988 he was also named to the same post at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, whose then-conductor Robert Shaw commissioned numerous choral works from Paulus for Shaw's eponymous vocal ensemble. After the premiere of his second opera, The Postman Always Rings Twice, he began a fruitful collaboration with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis that would result in four more operas. In 1997, he was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association.

Paulus was a passionate advocate for the works and careers of his colleagues. He co-founded the American Composers Forum in 1973, the largest composer service organization in the U.S., and served as the Symphony and Concert Representative on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1990 until his death (from complications following a stroke in July 2013) in 2014.

Stephen Paulus (August 24, 1949 – October 19, 2014) was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature.