Paul Creston


Paul Creston was an Italian American composer of classical music.

Biography

Born in New York City to Sicilian immigrants, Creston was self-taught as a composer. His work tends to be fairly conservative in style, with a strong rhythmic element. His pieces include six symphonies; a number of concertos, including two for violin, one for marimba and orchestra, one for one piano, one for two pianos, one for accordion and one for alto saxophone ; a fantasia for trombone and orchestra. Also for alto saxophone he wrote a Rapsodie for Jean-Marie Londeix; a suite and a sonata, both dedicated to Cecil Leeson ; and also a suite for organ, Op. 70.
Several of his works were inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman.
He died in Poway, California, a suburb of San Diego.
Creston was one of the most performed American composers of the 1940s and 1950s. Several of his works have become staples of the wind band repertoire. Zanoni, Prelude and Dance and the Celebration Overture have been and still are on several state lists for contests across the USA.
Creston was also a notable teacher, whose students included the composers Irwin Swack, John Corigliano, Elliott Schwartz, Frank Felice, Charles Roland Berry; accordionist/composer William Schimmel; and the jazz musicians Rusty Dedrick and Charlie Queener. He wrote the theoretical books Principles of Rhythm and Rational Metric Notation. He taught at Central Washington State College from 1968 to 1975.

Selected works

Stage