Baylor’s first Pulitzer winner passes at 66

In 2005, Steven Stucky, BM ’71 — one of America’s most highly regarded and frequently performed composers — became the first Baylor Bear to win a Pulitzer Prize. After a lifetime of achievement that included 20+ years working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and almost 35 years as a professor at Cornell, Stucky passed away Sunday at the age of 66 from brain cancer.

Growing up in Texas, Stucky didn’t hear a live orchestra until he was in high school. But after graduating from Baylor, he went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell, where he then returned to teach from 1980 to 2014. He was also appointed composer-in-residence for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1988, and his long association there is believed to be the longest such connection between an American orchestra and a composer.

It was in Los Angeles that he debuted what would become his most renowned work, the “Second Concerto for Orchestra,” which earned him the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also earned two Grammy Awards for his work with the a cappella choir Chanticleer, plus a third Grammy nomination in 2013 for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Most recently, Stucky had joined the faculty at The Juilliard School in 2014.

Sic ’em, Steven Stucky, for your lifetime of excellence in the world of music!