User:StephenHalloran

Stephen Halloran, composer, conductor and pianist

Stephen Halloran earned his BM from the Eastman School of Music and his MM and DMA from Boston University. He studied composition with Samuel Adler, Stephen Albert,Lukas Foss, Andrew Rudin and Joseph Schwantner. Halloran's music is frequently performed around the world, including a recent performance by Berlin Counterpoint in Bonn, Germany with Sasha Rattle, the son of Simon Rattle. Among his numerous awards for composition are the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, multiple ASCAP grants and the Renee B. Fisher Award for his piano set, The Galilee Hitchhiker for Piano. His music, Xiangqian, for the film Poet, has won national acclaim, receiving the Princess Grace Award. Halloran was commissioned by the Boston Classical Orchestra for the large scale work Concerto for New Orleans for jazz ensemble and orchestra. Halloran is an accomplished pianist, has performed as a harpsichordist with the New Hampshire Symphony and is a professional organist. Halloran is an innovative teacher who has designed many high level classes at Berklee, Tanglewood and other institutions including Fugue, Atonal Ear-Training, Renaissance Counterpoint and  Sketches of the Master Composers to name a few. Halloran has been obsessed with the sketches of great composers emulating the processes of Beethoven, Brahms and Stravinsky and enjoys teaching his students to do so. Halloran has taught countless young composers to find their voices through melody and harmony. Halloran does not believe that breaking the rules of harmony and counterpoint will lead to originality and instead believes that a true voice strives to master the music that they admire just like Bach, Mozart and Mahler did. Halloran’s influences span all genres and include composers such as Sibelius, Prokofiev, Thomas Tallis and Beethoven as primary influences. He serves as chair of the composition department at The Rivers School Conservatory and teaches full time at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.