Van Stiefel
Composer and guitarist
Van Stiefel composes music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, voice,
the computer, and the electric guitar. He has worked with a variety of performing
artists and ensembles including: Eliot Fisk and the Vega String Quartet,
the Nash Ensemble (London), Thamyris (Atlanta), the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, the
Talujon Percussion Ensemble (New York), the Sap Dream Electric Guitar Quartet (New York) and the New Jersey Symphony. His work is included on a
compilation of new music for classical guitar entitled Soepa, by recording artist Benjamin
Verdery. Significant commissions include those from the Atlanta Olympic
Festival, Arts Festival of Atlanta, and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Stiefel
graduated from Yale College and has a Masters in performance from the
Yale School of Music; in 2003, he completed the Ph.D. in music
composition from Princeton University.
Stiefel is Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at West Chester University
School of Music in Pennsylvania. With his wife, artist Caroline
Lathan-Stiefel and children Sam and Charlotte, he moved
from
Montreal, Quebec where he was
composer-in-residence at the SPCL and Faculty Lecturer in Music Theory at Schulich School of Music of McGill University.