Scott, Stephen

Scott, Stephen, American composer and performer; b. Corvallis, Ore., Oct. 10, 1944. He studied with Homer Keller at the Univ. of Ore. (B.A., 1967) and with Paul Nelson at Brown Univ. (M.A., 1969); also studied African music in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (1970). In 1969 he began teaching at Colo. Coll. in Colorado Springs, where he founded the Pearson Electronic Sound Studio (1969), the New Music Ensemble (1972), and, after developing a unique bowed piano technique, the Bowed Piano Ensemble (1977). Scott’s most significant works are scored for bowed piano strings, which, as Ingram Marshall aptly wrote, “…must be included with the prepared piano work of John Cage in the ’40s and ’50s, as well as the player piano machinations Conlon Nancarrow in the ’60s and ’70s as examples of startlingly unique artistic vision.” Among his awards are the New England Cons./Rockefeller Foundation Chamber Music Prize (1980) and an NEA Composer’s Fellowship (1985–86). His Tears of Niobe (1990) was elected to represent the U.S. at the 1991 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. The Bowed Piano Ensemble of Colo. Coll. was featured on his 1990 CD release, Vikings of the Sunrise. Two concert films have been made of his WORKS: Peter Savage’s Vikings of the Sunrise. Two con and Amy cert Entrada.

Works

Music I (1977), II (1978), and III for Bowed Strings (1977–79); Arcs (1980); Rainbows (1981); Minerva’s Web (1985); The Tears of Niobe (1986); Bowed Rosary (1990; in collaboration with T. Riley); Thirteen (1991); Music for Bowed Piano and Chamber Orch. (1993); Vikings of the Sunrise (1995); Baltic Sketches (1997); Double Variations (1999); Entrada (1999).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire