Stephen Mosko, December 6, 2005

Published in Newmusicbox.org, on December 9, 2005 by Rand Steiger:

It is with great sadness I write that Stephen “Lucky” Mosko passed away on December 5, 2005, at the age of 58. Lucky was a unique and innovative composer, a brilliant teacher, and an inspiring conductor.

The performances he led at the remarkable CalArts festivals in the ’80s still echo in the minds of all of us who were fortunate enough to attend them. He also conducted important premieres at the Aspen, Holland, and Ojai Festivals, and with the L.A. Philharmonic, Minnesota Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Schoenberg Ensemble, and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. His work with the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players was particularly notable for the fascinating concerts he programmed, the recordings he made, and the commissions he brought about during the ten years he served as music director. He was highly regarded by many leading composers whose works he conducted and recorded, including Adams, Andriessen, Babbitt, Brown, Cage, and Feldman. Cage once wrote in a letter of recommendation “if you are searching for a conductor, he is the one you will find.”

Mosko’s compositions were delicate, intricate, and demonstrated a very personal and unique style. He drew on his many enthusiasms (from contemporary physics, to psychology, literature, even cuisine) as well as many different musical influences, from contemporary Western music and from unusual forms of indigenous music from around the world (he had a huge record collection) for inspiration. His works were performed infrequently, but by many leading ensembles including the Sacramento and San Francisco Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at the Aspen, Ojai, and Tanglewood Festivals. Arthur Jarvinen’s website exhibits his appreciation of Mosko’s music and gives more detail, quotes, and links to his discography, list of works, and audio excerpts. There are two excellent portrait CDs, by the EAR Unit on oodiscs and from the Southwest Chamber Music Society.

Lucky was an exceptional teacher, who could speak with enthusiasm and authority on a wide range of topics, from the details of combinatorial serialism laid out in Babbitt’s articles to the philosophy and chance procedures in Cage’s works (with a thorough knowledge from his life-long study of the I Ching). In those, and many other iconic examples he always demonstrated the same enthusiasm and encouraged us by his example to reject the polemical attitudes found in other places and to see the plethora of contemporary musical approaches as a garden of truth and beauty from which to learn and be inspired.

In addition to all of this, Mosko was also a leading expert on the folk music of Iceland, having received two Senior Fulbright-Hayes Fellowships to do research there. He documented this work on a thorough website with his analysis and recordings.

Stephen L. Mosko was born in Denver on December 7, 1947. As a youth he played percussion in a community orchestra conducted by the legendary Antonia Brico, who took him on as a student and gave him his first conducting opportunities. He then went to Yale, where he studied composition with Donald Martino and conducting with Gustav Meier, receiving his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in 1969. He began his graduate studies at Yale, but when Mel Powell departed to become the founding dean of the California Institute of the Arts School of Music, he followed him there and studied with him, as well as with Morton Subotnick and Schoenberg protegy Leonard Stein. Mosko earned his MFA as a member of the inaugural class of CalArts in 1972, and then became a faculty member, teaching there for over 30 years, except for a two-year period in the late 1980s when he joined the faculty of Harvard.

It is very difficult to convey in words what a wonderful spirit Lucky had. He possessed a unique combination of genuine and infectious enthusiasm for a broad range of music, as well as a deep understanding of compositional procedures and extramusical influences. These qualities made it a joy to perform with him and to attend his lectures. He taught us by example to both love and rigorously understand the music we performed and studied. For generations of CalArts students, everything changed after you encountered him.

Many people who passed through CalArts over the years have made the unforgettable pilgrimage up to his rustic home in rural Green Valley, California, where great hospitality, humor, and conversation were nourished by the fruits and herbs of his gardens and his fantastic cooking. Above all, Lucky was a wonderful, generous, spirited friend, and his absence will be deeply felt by all of us who knew him.

Stephen “Lucky” Mosko is survived by his wife, flutist Dorothy Stone. A viewing will be held on Sunday, December 11, Malinow & Silverman Mortuary, 7366 S. Osage Avenue, Los Angeles, California; (1-800-710-7100).

Published in LA Times on December 12, 2005, by Chris Pasles:

Stephen ‘Lucky’ Mosko, 58; Composer Was a Mentor to New Music Performers

Stephen “Lucky” Mosko, a composer, conductor and mentor to several generations of new music performers, has died. He was 58.

Mosko died Tuesday of unknown causes at his home in Green Valley, Calif., said his wife, flutist Dorothy Stone.

For more than three decades, Mosko taught at CalArts in Valencia, where he was a member of the inaugural class in 1972 and helped found the California EAR Unit, a new music group.

He was music director of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival’s Contemporary Music Festival and the 1987 Los Angeles Festival, celebrating composer John Cage.

For 10 years, Mosko also served as music director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and was principal conductor of the Griffin Ensemble of Boston.

“His most special quality was his extremely warm and generous good nature, which came accompanied by an extraordinary enthusiasm for penetrating the most abstruse and difficult contemporary scores,” said composer John Adams, who began working with Mosko in the early 1980s.

“He had an enormous intellect and power of analysis, but he never, ever used that intellectual force to show off or to intimidate anyone. He was always extremely humble and self-effacing.”

Times music critic Mark Swed said that, although Mosko was a gifted conductor, his composing career never took off.

“Though a composer with a strong sonic vision, his music was written in an abstract style that has gone out of fashion,” Swed said. “But he was beloved for all the right reasons, including for being an inspiring teacher.”

Stephen L. Mosko was born Dec. 7, 1947, in Denver, and was nicknamed “Lucky” by his parents at an early age.

“My family was always into nicknames and gambling,” he told The Times in 1998. “They figured that, if they gave me this name, it might bring luck to everyone.”

His early musical brilliance was recognized and nurtured by emigre conductor Antonia Brico, with whom he studied conducting and piano.

He received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1969 and began graduate studies there.

But when composer Mel Powell, one of his teachers, left to become the founding dean of the CalArts School of Music, Mosko followed him, studying with Powell, Morton Subotnick and Leonard Stein.

After earning his master’s degree at CalArts, Mosko became a faculty member, teaching there until his death except for two years in the late 1980s when he was on the faculty of Harvard.

“He was a devoted teacher,” said David Rosenboom, dean of the CalArts School of Music. “He used to surprise students with things like strange exams where they would be given a scenario like ‘John Cage, Morton Feldman and Milton Babbitt are caught in an elevator and they have to talk about something. How would you script that situation?’ “

Students, Rosenboom said, “would have to prove how much they knew in some insightful way.”

Mosko’s compositions, which composer Rand Steiger described as “delicate, intricate and demonstrating a very personal and unique style,” have been performed by the San Francisco and Sacramento symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, SONOR and the EAR Unit, among others. Steiger, a former student and colleague of Mosko, said he is writing a memorial piece for him.

Mosko was a leading expert on the folk music of Iceland, having received two senior Fulbright/Hayes fellowships to do research there.

He also received a National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship, two Broadcast Music Inc. awards and a Fromm Foundation award.

In addition to his wife, Mosko is survived by his father, Aaron Mosko of Denver; and brother, Martin Mosko of Boulder, Colo.

Memorial contributions can be made to the CalArts Scholarship Fund, California Institute of the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355.

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