Jeffrey E. Stone

I started composing at 14 years of age. No idea why. Later I studied at the University of Houston and got my masters degree in music composition at Indiana University. Then I left the U.S. for Europe and never went back. First I had to earn money. I was an opera coach and conducted opera, operetta and even a few musicals. Then I abandoned the conductors career because it was consuming too much of my time and energy and wasn’t really my thing. During that time I hadn’t written one single note of music.

I performed as pianist in chamber music and also for 10 years in the 21st Century Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland where I still live. In that orchestra, under the baton of Ludwig Wicki, we performed almost entirely film music and I fell in love with the genre. Up to that time I had written only very “modern” abstract music, inspired by Hindemith, Schoenberg, and all the others, but I think not really liking what I wrote. My style then radically changed and went “backwards” so to speak. I now write "film music", just not for the film industry. I like the emotionality of film music and the varied sound palette that you can use. So I still write lots of dissonance when necessary, but not only. It depends on what the music is supposed to convey. I like it when music, playing it and listening to it, is fun, and for me at least it has to touch the heartstrings in some way. In addition to all that, I spent a lot of my time writing teaching literature for my own piano students. Any comments, reviews, or general feedback greatly appreciated. J. E. S.