New Music USA Online Library

Paul A. Epstein's compositions include works for string orchestra and for a variety of small ensembles. His long time collaboration with poet and novelist Toby Olson has produced two chamber operas as well as songs and vocal chamber music. A setting of Olson’s short story, "Reading," was commissioned for baritone Thomas Buckner. In "American Music in the Twentieth Century," critic Kyle Gann cites Epstein as “One of the finest postminimal composers...” and calls “Chamber Music: Three Songs from Home” “...a vocal setting for winds and keyboards of great contrapuntal beauty.” Epstein's music has been presented in the U.S. and abroad by such ensembles as Relâche, counter)induction, Composers Inc., the Circle ensemble of London, and ONIX Nuevo Ensamble de México. It is available on compact disk on the Irritable Hedgehog, Navona, Mode, and Capstone labels.

Paul A. Epstein is Emeritus Professor of Music Theory at Temple University, where he taught from 1969 to 2001. Born in Boston in 1938, he is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included Harold Shapero, Seymour Shifrin, and Luciano Berio, with whom he studied privately on a Fulbright grant to Italy in 1962-63. Epstein has been involved in closely collaborative work with artists in theater and dance. He was associated with the New York environmental theater group The Performance Group from 1969 to 1972, and from 1974 to 1987 he was composer and music director for ZeroMoving Dance Company of Philadelphia.