Collection: Suber, Stephen

1950 -
Suber, Stephen

Dr. Stephen Suber (b. 1950), Professor of Music, joined the faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University in 1982. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and received his undergraduate education in Illinois at Principia College, where he studied composition with Reinhart Ross. He continued his studies with Robert Ashley and Terry Riley at Mills College, which awarded Suber his M.A. in 1974. He completed his education with a Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University under the direction of Frederick Fox. During his final two years at Bloomington, Suber was a visiting lecturer of composition in Indiana University’s School of Music.

Suber has composed music for a wide variety of media. His catalog includes accompanied songs and an assortment of choral works, even including one piece for 32-part chorus. For instrumentalists, he has composed for every medium from unaccompanied solos through a wide variety of chamber ensembles up to wind ensembles and large orchestras. Suber has also worked with electronic tape and with mixed ensembles of live performers and electronic sounds. His music has been heard in many venues throughout the United States, especially in the southeast, and in Europe. Among the growing number of awards for his compositions are prizes from the Louisville Orchestra International Composition Contest and the National Music Teachers Association. Suber's Symphony Of Wind and Light (1981) was first recognized at the 1982 Indiana State University Orchestral Composition Contest, which led to a performance with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, this same work received the Fourth Prize in the Louisville competition, and it was subsequently performed and then recorded on the First Edition label by the LSO under conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith.

Among Suber's awards is a residency at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Colony in Taos, New Mexico, in April-May of 1989. During those two months he sketched portions of Enchantments: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, which had been commissioned by the Louisiana Music Teachers Association. The work was completed in September of 1992, and premiered on October 29, 1992 by the Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Orchestra, with David Evenson as soloist. Suber received the National Music Teachers Association 1993 Composer of the Year, Third Prize, for this work which has been released on compact disc with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Gerard Schwarz (MMC 2072).