Stevens, Halsey, 1908-1989

Biographical Note

Halsey Stevens was born on December 3, 1908, in Scott, New York. Educated at Homer Academy as a youth, Stevens took to composing at a young age and completed his first work, The Frogs at School, sometime around 1920-1921. He studied composition with William Berwald at Syracuse University, earning his B.A. in 1931 and his M.M. in 1937. Shortly after graduation, Stevens accepted a position as associate professor of music at Dakota Wesleyan University, where he remained until 1944. He continued his composition studies with Ernest Bloch at the University of California, Berkeley, before settling into a professorship at the University of Southern California in 1946. Over the course of his thirty-year tenure at the school, Stevens served as chairman for its department of composition (1949-1975), composer-in-residence (1972-1976), and as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities (1974-1976). He was named professor emeritus in 1976.

...