SEITZ, PAUL (b. 1951)

Dr. Paul Seitz (born November 15, 1951) is a native of Racine, Wisconsin. He is a composer of many genres including opera, a rich variety of chamber music, vocal music, and compositions for symphony orchestra and wind orchestra. His primary composition teachers have included Stephen Dembski, Fred Lerdahl, Joel Naumann and Robert Crane. He received his D.M.A. in Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with a doctoral minor in String Pedagogy), where he also completed the M.M. degree in Music Theory. In addition, he completed an M.A. in Gifted Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, in a course of study that included composition study at Columbia and a teaching practicum at the famed High School of Music and Art in New York City.

 

In July, 2001, his opera, The Children of the Keweenaw, with libretto by Kathleen Masterson, was commissioned by the Pine Mountain Music Festival and premiered in 2001. William Ivey, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, interviewed by NPR after the premiere, said that this work "demonstrates the enduring power of opera to connect with great stories."

 

Since 2005, music by Paul Seitz has been performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Millenium Stage Concert Series, the 14th World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Festival Internationale del Sassofono I Faenza, Italy, the Las Vegas International New Music Festival, the Pendulum New Music Series at the University of Colorado, the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas, the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Wyoming, the Reading Public Museum Concert Series and other venues. His 2004 wind orchestra piece, "Selamiut: The Sky Dwellers," is included in the new CD Spiritual Planet on the Klavier label, performed by the UNLV Wind Orchestra which commissioned the work. Seitz' music has also been performed by many All State and Honors Orchestras across the United States, including the 2005 All State Orchestras of Wisconsin and Georgia, conducted by Louis Bergonzi.

 

Dr. Seitz has taught string orchestra students in the Katonah-Lewisboro (New York), Briarcliff Manor (New York) and Oregon (Wisconsin) School Districts. More recently, he has been a lecturer in music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison an instructor and visiting professor in music theory and composition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He continues to enjoy contact with younger string players through composer residencies with school orchestra programs, and as a clinician working with string teachers on strategies for employing original student composition activities as a powerful way to promote musical literacy, fluency and creativity.

 

For more information, visit www.paulseitz.net.