Composer Portrait: The Music of Paul Schoenfield

From Milken Center Artistic Director Neal Stulberg:

(1947-2024) was a unique and brilliant musician of decidedly American Jewish Experience. A virtuoso concert pianist and hugely gifted composer who wrote for first-class performers and ensembles, Paul was a devoutly orthodox Jew and a remarkable person. Retiring as professor of composition at the University of Michigan in 2021, he split his time between the U.S. and Israel. His music — a fascinating mashup of klezmer/Hasidic, liturgical, jazz, bluegrass, blues and Americana — is well represented in the Milken Archive. Paul and I both grew up in Detroit, and I intersected with him professionally through the years. One chamber concert is hardly enough to do justice to his range and brilliance, but we’re going to try.

Program:

Four Motets for eight-voice chorus from Psalm 86 (1995)

Tales from Chelm for string quartet (1991)

Carolina Réveille for violin, viola, cello, piano (1996)

Camp Songs for mezzo-soprano, baritone, violin, cello, double bass, clarinet and piano (2001)

Host or Publisher Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music