Stefan Weisman

Stefan Weisman is a composer living in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. His works include chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, as well as music for theater, video and dance. He has recently been specializing in vocal pieces which explore odd and compelling topics.

Among his commissions are works for Sequitur, the Minimum Security Composers Collective, the Gay Gotham Choir with the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Battell Chapel Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium, which commissioned a piece in honor of George Crumb on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Other groups who have performed his work include the Mir String Quartet, So Percussion, the Locrian Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, the Third Angle Ensemble, the Yesaroun’ Duo, the DaCapo Chamber Players, Luna Nova, pianist Lisa Moore, flautist Patti Monson, mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra conducted by Luis Garcia-Renart, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic conducted by Leon Botstein, and a reading by the New Jersey Symphony with conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel. His orchestral work “The Bird Happens” was selected to be included in the American Composers Orchestra’s 2005 Underwood New Music Readings, and was conducted by Steven Sloane. In March 2006 he participated in “Ear Department” a program at Merkin Hall hosted by composer Michael Gordon.

His music has been heard at places such as Symphony Space, Merkin Concert Hall, the June in Buffalo festival, the Flea Theater, and a Bang on a Can Marathon Concert. He has participated in theater, dance and video collaborations at venues including the Knitting Factory, Collective Unconscious, WAX, the HERE Theater, the Most Significant Bytes Multimedia Festival, and Barb’s.

A graduate of Bard College and Yale University, he is currently a PhD candidate at Princeton University. His composition instructors have included David Lang, Joan Tower, Daron Hagen, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Steven Mackey, Barbara White and Paul Lansky.

Anthony Tommasini (New York Times) called his music in the opera/theater piece DARKLING “personal, moody and skillfully wrought.” DARKLING, commissioned by the American Opera Projects, was included in the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” series, and premiered at the Classic Stage Company Theater in March 2006.