Stephen Gorbos has composed concert music for a range of ensembles and soloists, as well as music for film, theatre, and dance.  Organizations such as the Minnesota Orchestra, the Fireworks Ensemble, the New England Philharmonic, and the Cuarteto Latinamericano have played Stephen’s pieces in concert halls across the US and in Europe, and his music has garnered awards from organizations such as ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. Stephen has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen and Bowdoin summer music festivals, Ostrava Music Days, the Joventuts Musicals festival in Torroella de Montgri, Spain, the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, and the Chamber Music Academy and Composers Forum of the East. In addition to his composing activities, Stephen also teaches composition, theory, and music history, having served as a visiting instructor at the College of the Holy Cross during the 2007/2008 academic year.  This fall, Stephen will be starting a new position as assistant professor of composition and theory at the Catholic University of America in the Benjamin T Rome School of Music. 

Originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Stephen started out playing piano at age 5, which was followed shortly thereafter by many other instruments. Along with a thorough grounding in common-practice piano repertoire, defining musical experiences early on were hearing his father's ever-present record collection of 50's and 60's R&B, as well as performaning with various bands that played rock, punk, jazz, and many hybrids in between.  Writing music down for other people to play started during high school. After completing a BFA in music composition at Carnegie Mellon University, Stephen went on to the Yale School of Music, where he completed an MM. This past spring, Stephen received his DMA from Cornell University; his dissertation, an analysis of Ingram Marshall’s Dark Waters, focuses on authorial presence in sample-based music.

Stephen’s activities as a performer have most recently taken the form of live electronic music. Stephen’s interest in electronic music goes back to getting acquainted with basic sampling and editing techniques via film scoring during his undergraduate days. In conjunction with the budding electroacoustic center at Cornell headed by Kevin Ernste, Stephen worked with fellow grad students Dave Weaver and Spencer Topel on a series of concerts during 2006 that included performances in Ithaca and at Google's NYC offices. Music if you don't have time, featured on the home page of www.stephengorbos.com, is an excerpt from Richard Sisto as Prophet, a piece for laptop, record player, and drum machine that has now been performed several times. You can hear that piece, and many others, on the listening page.

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