About Steven Sametz
Steven Sametz (b. 1954, Westport, Connecticut) is the Ronald J. Ulrich Professor of Music at Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) as well as the Artistic Director of the professional chamber choir, The Princeton Singers. He is director of Lehigh University Choral Arts and founding director of the Lehigh University Choral Union. At Lehigh, he directs the University Choir, Choral Union and men’s Glee Club in choral-orchestral repertoire from medieval to modern eras. Lehigh groups have performed on tour at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, the Schubertsaal in Vienna, the Berlin Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. He regularly conducts major works with orchestra, including Bach’s B-minor Mass, Johannespassion, and a fully staged performance of the Matthäuspassion; Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, the Verdi Requiem, Lutoslawski’s Trois poemes d’Henri Michaut, the Britten War Requiem, and Debussy’s Le Martyr de Saint Sébastien with dance.
Dr. Sametz has been hailed as “one of the most respected choral composers in America.” He is the recipient of one of the country’s most prestigious choral commissions, the American Choral Director Association’s Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission to write Three Mystical Choruses, premiered by Chanticleer at Symphony Hall in Chicago at the 2011 American Choral Directors convention. Other composers awarded this commission include Giancarlo Menotti, Dominick Argento, Stephen Paulus, Daniel Pinkham, Eric Whitacre and Morton Lauridsen. Sametz’s Music’s Music, commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, was premiered at Disney Hall in Los Angeles in 2009. His works may be heard on three CDs by The Princeton Singers under his direction, including I Have Had Singing, a compilation of his choral compositions and arrangements issued on the Arsis label. His works appear on six Chanticleer CDs; his in time of is featured on Chanticleer’s Grammy Award-winning CD, Colors of Love. He frequently premieres new works and records with the ensembles at Lehigh University.
Dr. Sametz has a growing list of publications, primarily with E.C Schirmer in Boston. In 2010, E.C. Schirmer published his Carmina amoris, a choral symphony in six movements. His works are also published by Oxford University Press, Walton Music, Gia, Alliance Music and StevenSametz Publications.
Sametz is also the founding director of the Lehigh Summer Choral Composers’ Forum. Composers from across the country come together to create new works during an intensive, week-long seminar under the mentorship of Dr. Sametz and guest clinicians. The Princeton Singers, serving as choir-in-residence, read developing pieces over the week and present a concert of premieres at the end of the workshop. Over fifty premieres have been staged, and many of the works have been published. In 2010, the Forum was co-sponsored by The American Choral Directors Association.
Sametz’s guest conducting appearances include the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation, the Berkshire Music Festival, the New York Chamber Symphony and the Netherlands Radio Choir. Dr. Sametz’ compositions have been heard throughout the world at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Santa Fe music festivals. Dr. Sametz has conducted The Princeton Singers at the American Choral Directors’ Association, American Organists Guild convention, and the Chorus America conference.
Dr. Sametz has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Connecticut Council on the Arts, and the Santa Fe music festival, creating new works for Chanticleer, the Dale Warland Singers, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Philadelphia Singers, Pro Arte Chamber Choir, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Connecticut Choral Artists, Joyful Noise and the King of Thailand.
Dr. Sametz has twice been featured as a composer in articles in The Choral Journal. He has served as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Council on the Arts, and Chorus America, the ASCAP Adventurous Programming Awards and the American Composers’ Forum. He has been Director of Choral Activites at Harvard and is the founder and director of the Lehigh University Choral Union. At the Santa Fe Music Festival, he conducted his own works in a program entitled “Sametz conducts Sametz.” He has conducted Chanticleer in the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 in New York and San Francisco to critical acclaim. Dr. Sametz holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.
Education
- DMA University of Wisconsin-Madison in choral conducting
- M. Mus. University of Wisconsin-Madison
- B.A. Yale University
- Diploma, Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst
Teaching Experience
- Harvard University: Acting Director of Choral Activities (1984)
- Lehigh University (R.J. Ulrich Professor of Music and Director of Lehigh University Choral Arts)
- Director of 65-voice University Choir & 30-voice Glee Club
- Founder-director of 180-voice Choral Union
- Founder-director and arranger of the University Overtones (vocal jazz) and Glee Club
- Teacher of conducting, advanced analysis
Research, Academic Honors, Commissions, etc.
- Commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association to fulfill the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission, creating a new work for Chanticleer,
Three Mystical Choruses, to be premiered at the ACDA National Convention, March 2011. - Commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work, Fantasia on Call to Remembrance for SATB choir and digitally delayed oboe (2011)
- Commissioned by Illinois Wesleyan University to create a new work, Ras gagan (Divine Nectar), for SATB choir (2011)
- commissioned by the Lehigh University Choral Union to create a new work, Not an End of Loving, for Chanticleer to celebrate the Choral Union’s 25th anniversary season. Premiere April 17, 2010. Accepted for publication by E.C. Schirmer.
- commissioned by Wellesley College to create a new work for the Wellesley College Choir, Voices of Broken Hearts, for SSA choir and digitally delayed vibraphone (2010). Accepted for publication by E.C. Schirmer.
- commissioned to write a new work, Bonse aba, for Joyful Noise, a special needs choir directed by Allison Fromm Entrekin. Premiered at the Chorus America conference, June 2009.
- commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work, The Twenty-ninth Bather. SSAA choir and optional marimba and violoncello (2009)
- create a new work for the Lehigh University Choir, Fantasia on Jesu. meine Freude, for SATB choir and digitally delayed Baroque recorder.
- commissioned to write a new work for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Music’s Music, for SATB double choir, harp and clarinet (2008). Published by E.C. Schirmer.
- commissioned by the Cavalier Voices of JT Lambert Intermediate School, East Stroudsburg, Pennsyvania to create a new work, Mindful of You for SATB choir (2008)
- commissioned by The Princeton Singeres to create a new work, The Windhover, for SATB choir. (2008)
- commissioned to create a new orchestral ballet, Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions, for performance at Lehigh University with the Pascal Rioult Dance Company (2007)
- commissioned to create a new work, Thou Whose Birth, for The Choral Society of Durham for SATB, optional harp (2007)
- commissioned to create a new work for The Princeton Singers, Two Love Songs of St. John of the Cross: 1) Luz y amor; 2) Mi amado for SSAA choir (2007)
- create a new work with Arati Shah-Yukich, Shamalyo, for soloist, tabla and choir premiered by The Princeton Singers (2007)
- commissioned to create a new work, We Two Boys Together Clinging, for tenor-baritone duet, marimba/vibes and violoncello (2007)
- create new work for the Lehigh University Philharmonic, Bedazzled, for solo electric violin and orchestra. (2006)
- commissioned to create a new work for the South Bend Chamber Chorus, The Choir Invisible, for SATB choir, organ, harp and percussion (2006)
- commissioned to create a new work, We two, for a consortium of nine men’s choirs under the auspices of Cantus (Minneapolis, MN) (2006-7). Partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
- create a new work for The Princeton Singers and area high school choirs, Musica animae (2006)
- create a new work for Lehigh University Choral Arts, Child of Song (2005)
- create a ballet-concerto for Lehigh University Choral Arts and Eugene Albulescu, pianist, The White Raven (2005)
- commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work, Angelus (2005)
- commissioned by the Berks Classical Children’s Chorus to create a new work, I Cannot Dance, O Lord (2005)
- commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work, Amo (2004)
- commissioned by The Phoenix Bach Choir to create a new work, La Eternidad (2004)
- commissioned by the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship to create a new work, The Light Within (2003)
- Commissioned by The Texas Lutheran University Choir, to write You are a Letter from Christ. (2003)
commissioned to by Lower McCungie Middle School to write Perhaps They Are Not Stars (2002) - commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work, Never more will the wind (2002)
- commissioned by the Dyer Family to write Alleluia (2002)
- commissioned by the Cathedral Choral Society to write Angel Fire (2002)
- commissioned by the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra to write Earth Wind Fire- Concertino for 2 Harps and Orchestra (2002)
- create a new work for Lehigh University Choral Arts, American Songs — Sacred and Profane (2002)
- commissioned by the Lower Macungie Middle School to create a new work, Perhaps They Are Not Stars (2002)
- commissioned by the University of Illinois Choir to create a new work, Everyone Sang (2001)
- Awarded Lehigh’s highest research award, the Eleanor and Jospeh F. Libsch Research Award (2000)
- Awarded Lehigh’s highest teaching award, the R.R. & E.C. Hillman Award (1998)
Commissioned by Princeton Singers to create a double choir work, Dudaryku, for The Princeton Singers and Chanticleer (2001) - create a new symphonic work for Lehigh University Choral Arts, Carmina amoris (2001)
- Commissioned by Staples High School to write new work, Peace on Earth (2000)
- Commissioned by The Princeton United Methodist Church, Unless the Lord Build the House (2000)
- Commissioned by The Princeton Singers to create a new work annually (1999-)
- Commissioned by Connecticut Choral Artists to create a new work, Laudare (1999)
- Commissioned by Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra to create a new work. Orison– A Child’s Prayer (1999)
- Commissioned by Bucks County Chorale to create a new work, Nunc Dimmitis — He Gives Us Joy (1997)
- Commissioned by Central Bucks High School to create a new work, When He Shall Die. (1997)
- Commissioned by Connecticut Pro Arte Singers to create a new work, The Return (1997)
- Commissioned by Chanticleer to write in time of (1997)
- Commissioned by Chanticleer to write two new works: There is No Rose of Such Virtue and Gaudete (1995)
- Received composer grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to create a new work (1995)
- Nominated for 1992 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) National Professor of the Year
- Grant to study computer applications of fractal theory and speech synthesis at the Brooklyn Center for Computer Music (1989)
- Artist-in-residence at the Leighton Artist Colony, Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta, Canada (1989)
Conducting
- Artistic and Managing Director of the Lehigh University Choral Composers’ Forum
- Director and conductor of the Oxford Summer Institutes at Lehigh, 2000-2004
- Artistic Director of the Princeton Singers, 1998-
- Pennsylvania District 12, guest conductor
- Guest conductor and clinician, Taipei Philhamonic Foundation (Taipei, Taiwan)
- Two week , four city tour of China (Beijing, Nanjing, Xian, Shiang-hai)
- Two week tour of Germany and Austria with the Lehigh University Choir
- Three week tour of California with the Lehigh University Choir
- Three week tour of Asia with the Lehigh University Choir
- Berkshire Choral Festival. Program of Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Sametz, and Rossini
- New York Chamber Symphony (Prokofiev, Classical Symphony; Barber, Knoxville Summer, 1915; Beethoven, Triple Concerto
- Conduct and tour with the Nederlands Omroepkoor (Netherlands National Radio Choir). Program of Nono, Varese, Ives and Verdi
- Pennsylvania All State Regional Chorus
- Mozart Club. Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Handel’s Messiah
- Conduct American premiere of Mendelssohn’s Loreley, op.98 (Included sections newly transcribed from manuscript edited by Larry Todd and Steven Sametz. World premiere) and Mahler’s Das klagende Lied. Broadcast on National Public Radio
- Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Guest conductor of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale including the premiere of a newly commisioned work, Desert Voices
- Berkshire Chorale Institute. Conduct Brahms’ Nanie and Orff’s Carmina Burana
- Lehigh University Choral Arts. Conduct the premiere of Norman Dello Joio’s The Vigil, commissioned for Lehigh University Choral Arts and the Lehigh Universtiy Very Modern Ensemble
- Chanticleer and Lehigh University Choir. Monteverdi Vespro della beata Vergine (1610) Performed at St Mary’s Church, New York. Broadcast on National Public Radio
- Chanticleer. Guest Conductor for the Monteverdi Vespro della beata Vergine (1610) at Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
- Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Guest conductor of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, including the premiere of a newly commissioned work, Five Sandburg Settings
Lehigh University Choral Arts has been very active in commissioning and premiering works. These include Earl Kim’s Some Thoughts on Keats and Coleridge, Robert Moran’s Hagaromo and Rituals and Ceremonies, Norman Dello Joio’s The Vigil (with the Lehigh University Very Modern Ensemble), Paul Salerni’s Cantate Domino, Bradley Ellingboes’s Evening Prayer, and many works by Steven Sametz.
| J.S. Bach | Johannespassion |
| Mozart | Mass in C Minor |
| Stravinsky | Les noces (with ballet) |
| Fauré | Requiem |
| Bernstein | Chichester Psalms |
| Bruckner | Mass in E Minor |
| Lutoslawski | Trois poemes d’Henri Michaux |
| Handel | Messiah (with Baroque Orchestra) |
| Handel | Ode for St.Cecilia’s Day |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Beethoven | Mass in C |
| Mozart | Requiem |
| Brahms | Nänie |
| Rossini | Stabat Mater |
| Stravinsky | Symphony of Psalms |
| Bach | Johannespassion |
| Verdi | Requiem |
| Britten | St. Nicholas |
| Brahms | Ein Deutsches Requiem |
| Bernstein | Chichester Psalms |
| Debussy | Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (ballet and actors) with text translation by S. Sametz |
| Duruflé | Requiem |
| Carissimi | Jepthe (with Baroque consort) |
| Monteverdi | Vespers of 1610 (with Chanticleer and the Orchestra of the 18th Century) |
| Beethoven | Overture to Coriolanus |
| Verdi | Quattro Pezzi Sacri |
| Sametz | Muji no makotoba (premiere1992) |
| Mendelssohn | Loreley (American premiere plus world premiere of section newly translated from manuscript) (1993) |
| Mahler | Das klagende Lied |
| Brahms | Schicksalied |
| Vaughan Williams | Fantasy on a Theme by Thomas Tallis |
| Sametz | in time of (premiere, 1995) |
| Sametz & Shah-Yukich | The Demon King (premiere, 1996) |
| Schubert | Mass in Ab |
| Brahms | Alt Rhapsodie |
| Beethoven | Chorale Fantasie |
| Musorgsky | Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov |
| Bach | B minor Mass (with Baroque orchestra) |
| Tchaikovsky | Violin Concerto |
| Sametz | Nevermore will the Wind |
| Ravel | Daphnis and Chloe Suite no. 2 |
| Mahler | Symphony 2, Resurrection (Finale) |
| Bizet | Carmen (excerpts) |
| Verdi | Aida (excerpts) |
| Schoenberg | A Survivor from Warsaw (staged) |
| Beethoven | Meerstille und glückliche Fahrt |
| Vaughan Williams | Sernade to Music |
| Wolf | Der Feuerreiter |
| Reger | Der Einsiedler |
| Dvorak | Slavonic Dance |
| Dvorak | Te Deum |
| Wagner | Wesendonck Lieder |
| Poulenc | Gloria |
| Ravel | Tsigane |
| Bach | Cantata 4: Christ lag in Todesbanden |
| Bach | Orchestral Suite No. 3 |
| Bach | Magnificat |
| Sametz | Carmina amoris |
| Debussy | Nocturnes |
| Beethoven | Ninth Symphony |
| Sametz | American Songs — Sacred and profane |
| Britten | War Requiem |
| Bach | St. Matthew Passion (staged with Baroque orchestra) |
| Sametz | White Raven (ballet-concerto for piano, chorus and orchestra) |
| Sametz | Child of Song |
| Beethoven | Leonora Overture No. 3 |
| Tchaikovsky | Letter Scene and Waltz from Eugene Onegin |
| Mussorgsky | St John’s Night on the Bare Mountain (chorus and orchestra from Fair at Soroschinski) |
| Beethoven | Prisoners’ Chorus and Recit. and Scene: “Abscheulicher !” from Fidelio |
| Puccini | Humming Chorus and Un bel di from Madama Butterfly |
| Mascagni | Easter Chorus from Cavalleria Rusticana |
| Beethoven | Missa Solemnis |
| Sametz | Bedazzled for solo electric violin and orchestra |
| Sametz | Musica animae |
| Mendelssohn | Psalm 42 |
| Mahler | Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 |
| Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel | Lobgesang |
| Bach | Bist Du Bei Mir (newly orchestrated by Sametz) |
| Alma Mahler | In meines Vaters Garten |
| Sametz | Thou Whose Birth |
| Sametz | Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions (premiere) |
| Vaughan Williams | Dona nobis pacem
Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis |
| Sametz | The Twenty-ninth Bather
We Two Boys Together Clinging |
| Schoenberg | Friede auf Erden |
| Handel | Israel in Egypt |
| Bach | Cantatas: Christ lag in Todesbanden, Himmelskonig
sei willkommen, Motet: Jesu, meine Freude |
| Sametz | Earth, Wind, Fire –double harp concerto |
Panelist
- Adjudicator of national student choral awards for American Choral Directors’ Association (2008)
- ASCAP panel for Adventuresome Programming, 2008
- ASCAP panel for Adventuresome Programming, 2007
- ASCAP panel for Adventuresome Programming, 2006
- Massachusetts Council on the Arts, Opera and Choral Panel, 2006
- National Endowment for the Arts Challenge III Program (1991) resulted in funding for “The First Art” on National Public Radio
- Chorus America Choral Music Performance Program
- Adjudication panel for national auditions of the ensemble Chanticleer