STEVEN STUCKY
Host of Hear & Now, born in 1949 in Hutchinson, Kansas
Not everyone in the pantheon of today’s composer can claim to have spent time on a farm in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. But Steven Stucky can. It’s also on the prairie that he took up the viola as a boy of 10. Now he’s a music professor at Cornell, his alma mater, and has other prestigious appointments in the music world. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for example, where he is Consulting Composer for New Music, one responsibility is to study scores of other living composers hoping to have their works performed. His credentials make him the perfect choice for the New York Philharmonic’s three Hear and Now concerts this season, in which he leads adventurous music lovers into explorations of new works by fellow American composers—usually in the company of those composers. The programs begin one hour before concert start time, and an abbreviated version of his remarks takes place during the concert itself. Steven Stucky knows each of the composers featured on Hear and Now: Elliott Carter, Avner Dorman, and Peter Lieberson, and says: “I can’t think of three more different composers, but who are so perfect for a Hear and Now treatment. Elliott Carter, whose 100th birthday we celebrate this season, is charming and holds audiences in his hand; Avner Dorman is hot, hot, hot in music circles today, yet his music is approachable and energetic. And Peter Lieberson is a gentle, kind, warm, generous person who writes some of the most beautiful music today.” Steven Stucky will get ready for Hear and Now by studying the scores, communicating with the composers, and attending rehearsals. He believes the secret to opening up fearlessly to new music is to make a human connection between audience and composer—the approach taken in Hear and Now presentations. “The fact that someone is talking to you about the music is almost more important than what the person says. The barriers are taken down when the composer and the audience think of themselves as allies. Call it ‘rooting for the home team.’ That way everybody wins.”