Stephan Prock

Senior Lecturer in Composition

DMA, Cornell University; Master of Music, Florida State University; BA, Mobile College

American-born composer Stephan Prock joined the staff of the New Zealand School of Music in 2006. Previously, Dr. Prock taught at The University of Richmond, The College of William and Mary and, most recently, The University of Virginia where, in addition to his duties as a composer, he was Director of the New Music Ensemble and taught courses in film music and twentieth-century American popular music. Prock received his doctorate in composition from Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Steven Stucky and Karel Husa. In March 2002 he was selected to participate in the first annual Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute for emerging composers headed by composer Aaron Jay Kernis. He has also been in residence at the McDowell Colony and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in France where he worked with composers Tristan Murail and Andre Boucourechliev.

As a composer Stephan Prock has written music for a variety of electronic and acoustic media and his works have been performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe.  Recently, he composed music for the Paladin Productions feature film When Love Walks In, which received the award for Best Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Bare Bones International Independent Film Festival in April, 2005. Other commissions include those from the eXceptional Orchestra, The Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble, The Virginia Bar Association, CURRENTS, the Culbreth Theater at the University of Virginia, as well as incidental music for a Christ's College production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors at Cambridge University.

In addition to his compositional activities, Stephan Prock is active as a scholar and critic of film music. His article, Music, Gender and the Politics of Performance in Singin’ in the Rain, appeared in the December 2000 issue of the Colby Quarterly. He has also presented his work on film music at a number of national and international conferences including the National Meetings of the American Musicological Society, The Society for Ethnomusicology, the Lyrica Society and the Royal Musical Association in England. His most recent research into film music has focused on the relationship of film music to representations of gender. Currently he is working on a book exploring the relationship of music and masculinity in postwar Hollywood cinema.

Mr. Prock is a member of several professional societies and organizations, including SOUNZ (The Centre for New Zealand Music), CANZ, Broadcast Music Inc., The American Music Center, The American Composers Forum, The Society of Composers, Inc., and The American Musicological Society.

Contact details
Room 205, Ken Scott House
Phone: +64 4 463 5416
Email: stephan.prock@nzsm.ac.nz

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