Halsey Stevens

Halsey Stevens studied at Syracuse University, University of California, Berkeley and Dakota Wesleyan University. Employment is recorded with University of Southern California, Syracuse University and University of Redlands. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and Arts and Letters Award in Music.

Halsey Stevens was born in Scott, New York and educated at Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley. He studied with William Berwald at Syracuse and with the composer Ernest Bloch at Berkeley. Stevens served as a faculty member at Syracuse University (1935–1937), Dakota Wesleyan University (1937–1941), Bradley University (1941–1946), the University of Redlands (1946), and then at the University of Southern California from 1946 until his retirement in 1976. His notable students there included Charles Lloyd, Houston Bright, Benjamin Lees, Morten Lauridsen, and Williametta Spencer. He died in a Long Beach, California, medical facility on January 20, 1989, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

His recorded music includes, in chronological order of composition: • "Go, Lovely Rose," for mixed chorus (SATB) a cappella (1942) • Quintet for Flute, Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello (1945) • Symphony No. 1 (1945) • Three Inventions for Piano (1948) • Sonata for French Horn and Piano (1953) • Triskelion, for orchestra (1953) • Five Duos for Two Cellos (1954) • Intrada for Piano (1954) • "Like as the Culver on the Barèd Bough," for mixed chorus (SSATB) a cappella (1954) • Partita for Harpsichord (1954) • The Ballad of William Sycamore, for mixed chorus (SATB) and orchestra (1955) • Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1956) • Sonata Piacevole for recorder and harpsichord (1956) • Sinfonia Breve, for orchestra (1957) • Symphonic Dances (1958) • Sonata for [Unaccompanied] Cello (1958) • Sonatina for Tuba [or Bass Trombone] and Piano (1960) • Sonata for Trombone and Piano (1965) • Campion Suite, for mixed chorus (SATB) a cappella (1967) • Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (1969) along with many other works. Among his chamber works, Stevens's 1956 trumpet sonata remains a particular favorite, having been commercially recorded by over a half-dozen trumpeters, including Giuseppe Galante, Jouko Harjanne, David Hickman, Wynton Marsalis, Anthony Plog, Scott Thornburg, and George Vosburgh. A present-day music reviewer, Osvaldo Polatkan, sought in 2008 to convey something of the composer's models, influences, and mature style thus: