Six degrees of separation is "an idea that all living things and everything else in the world is six or fewer steps away from each other – you can connect any two people in a maximum of six steps." It was originally set out in 1929 and popularized in a 1990 play. You probably have heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon! We’ll connect three composers, very easily – not only through the Pulitzer Prize in Music, but through study at Cornell University.
Karel Husa was a professor at Cornell University and lecturer at Ithaca College in upstate New York. Among his composition students were Steven Stucky, and Christopher Rouse. We’ll talk with them, celebrate their music, and hear their Pulitzer Prize winning works on today’s What’s New!
Steven Stucky, "the Given Foundation Professor of Music Emeritus, joined the Cornell faculty in 1980. An important mentor to emerging composers for decades, he also was a prominent advocate for new music as artistic director of Ensemble X and host of the New York Philharmonic’s critically acclaimed “Hear and Now” series, among other professional roles throughout his career.
He won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in music for “Second Concerto for Orchestra,” originally commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Appointed composer-in-residence by Andre Previn in 1988, Stucky worked for 21 years with the orchestra, 17 of them as consulting composer for new music."
Read Christopher Rouse's touching tribute to Steven Stucky here.
What’s New is a production of WBAA Classical, a listener supported broadcast service of Purdue University.
