Paul Richards
ABOUT - Paul Richards
Born in New York City in 1969 to a musical family, composer Paul Richards has been engaged with music since childhood, including forays into various popular styles, the Western canon, and Jewish sacred and secular music through his father, a cantor. All of these experiences inform his creative activities, which have included numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical works. Hailed in the press as a composer with "a strong, pure melodic gift, an ear for color, and an appreciation for contrast and variety," and praised for his "fresh approach to movement and beautiful orchestral coloration," his works have been heard in performance throughout the country and internationally on six continents.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, including the 2017 Flute New Music Consortium Competition Competition, the 2014 Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Competition, the 2009 St. Mary's University/Kaplan Foundation Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's Fresh Ink 2002 Florida Composers' Competition, the International Section of the 2000 New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award, and the 2001 and 2004 Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, Finalist in the 2006 American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Finalist in the Atlanta Chamber Players 2009 Rapido! Composition Competition, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition in 2001, First Place in the 1999 Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award (1994-95, 1995-96) and many others.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Brass, Flute New Music Consortium,the 6ixwire project, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers' Association, St. Mary's University/Kaplan Foundation, Buffet-Crampon International Summer Clarinet Academy, Open Heart String Quartet, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra.
In addition, many university wind programs have commissioned Richards' work, including those of Auburn, Baylor, DelMar, Florida, Illinois - Champaign/Urbana, Kennesaw State, Lebanon Valley, McNeese State, Michigan, Nevada - Las Vegas, North Carolina - Greensboro, Northern Iowa, Oregon State, Purdue, Syracuse, Texas, Texas A&M, Truman State, and Wisconsin - Stevens Point.
With a strong interest in vocal and theatrical music, Richards has composed three operas, with a fourth underway, and “Forty-Four Ambitions for Soprano and Piano”, an extended song cycle on the poetry of Lola Haskins.
Forty-Four Ambitions for Soprano and Piano was released on CD in 2019 on the Meyer Media label. Witch Doctor, a CD of Richards' wind ensemble music, was released in 2013 on the Mark Custom label, and Fables, Forms, and Fears, a CD of Richards' chamber music, was released by Meyer Media in 2007. Music by Paul Richards is also recorded on the Centaur, MMC, Capstone, Spitfire, Summit, Raven, and Pavane labels. His works are published by Carl Fischer Music, the International Horn Society Press, TrevCo Music, Jeanné, Inc., and Margalit Music.
Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Paul Richards Discography
Rough Translations
Rough Translations (2020)
Most of Paul Richards' compositional activity has involved works in the "classical" sphere - orchestral pieces, chamber music, operas, and the like - but his first deep engagement with music was as an electric guitarist and bass player, and that experience, and that sound world, have never been far from his creative work.
With Rough Translations, he has taken some of these acoustic pieces and transformed them, exploring the links between these two artificially separate worlds. "Zion Sector Dub" was originally the third movement of his first symphony, based on a description of a future music in William Gibson's Neuromancer. "Eddying Towards the Day," based on Sir Henry Newbolt's poem "Imogen," and "Hydra," from Greek myth, both began life as works for wind ensemble, and their appearance here involves numerous guitar parts to recreate something of the layered textures of the originals. "The Emergence of Flight" was composed for viola and piano, and "Essie Tregowan," a loose tone poem based on a brief story in Neil Gaiman's American Gods, was conceived of for big band.
While all of the above are adaptations made for this project, Paul has long been thinking about making works of this kind, and the remaining two compositions began as pieces for amplified ensembles. "Kaleidophone" was originally for electric guitar and two keyboards, and is heard that way here. Shortly after its composition, he reworked the piece for a 9-piece ensemble, and the version rendered is a re-translation, created by reverse engineering the chamber piece rather than returning to the original score as improvements happened along the way. Similarly, "Falling on Lobsters in the Dark" was first written for amplified quartet before being transformed into an acoustic trio and then transformed back again.
Paul is interested in exploring what can emerge when boundaries, borders, and categories are dissolved, and what can be gained through translation.
Forty-Four Ambitions for Soprano and Piano
Forty-Four Ambitions for Soprano and Piano (2019)
Forty-Four Ambitions for Soprano and Piano is a complete setting of Lola Haskins' poetry collection, Forty-Four Ambitions for Piano, composed by Paul Richards between 2004 and 2011 in close consultation with the poet. The texts are eclectic and far ranging, by turns tragic and playful, earthy, and whimsical, and insightful in surprising and delightful ways, and the music explores an extensive range of approaches, techniques, and ambiences within one collection.
Soprano Caroline Worra and pianist Brian Garman bring these works to life with exquisite artistry and sensitivity in a celebration of music, music-making, and the transformative power of art.
Fables, Forms, and Fears
Fables, Forms, and Fears (2007)
"It is music that bears the stamp of very solid compositional craftsmanship but also the lucid spark of inspiration. You do not hear the moments of less-than-inspired passagework that you might in a lesser composer. The thematic material is engaging and the development of it filled with drama and musical logic."
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– Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review, by Grego Applegate Edwards
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Paul Richards collaborates with the "Strung Out Trio" and others to bring you a "Rush Hour" of Gypsies, Octopus, and Lobsters! Don't miss the creativity of this wonderfully colorful composer.