David Stock, a composer and conductor who did more than any other individual to advocate for and perform new classical music in the city of Pittsburgh, died Monday morning. He was 76.
The cause of his death was a brief illness brought on by a rare blood disorder, according to his son-in-law Jonathan Mayo. Mr. Stock, a native Pittsburgher, established the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble in 1976. At the time, he simply was looking for a job — and an outlet for his conducting and composing efforts. He didn't expect the scrappy PNME, which celebrated its 40th season last summer, to thrive for as long as it has.
“I don’t think I had such high-flown expectations," he said this summer. "I just wanted to get it going and see what happened."
At the beginning, PNME both produced its own concerts with local freelance musicians and brought in eminent acts such as Ornette Coleman and the Kronos Quartet. The ensemble, now led by Kevin Noe, presents a summer-only season and has premiered nearly 300 pieces of music by composers including David Lang, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Steven Stucky. It has provided early commissions for some of the country's most esteemed composers, and regularly premieres the works of several Pittsburgh artists.
His willingness to commission the works of young composers made an indelible mark on the new music world, said his former student Reza Vali, who received his first-ever commission from Mr. Stock in 1984.
When Mr. Stock started PNME, Pittsburgh lacked a new music presence outside of academic settings, said Mr. Vali, who is on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.
“It was not something at the level of the city and at the level of the community,” he said. “Bringing the idea of contemporary music in the community at large is really the work of David Stock.”
"He was the ultimate artist entrepreneur before that was a term that anybody used," said Jeffrey Nytch, the organization's board president and former managing director. "I think he was the prophetic voice that Pittsburgh could be a place for the new and the edgy and the innovative, because he recognized that before anybody else did."
During Mr. Stock’s tenure, PNME also was host to two international music festivals. He retired from the organization in 1999. "Even though he had retired, he was never going to leave PNME. He was still everybody's papa," Mr. Nytch said. "He was the reason why we were all there."
A significant composer in his own right, Mr. Stock often drew on his Jewish heritage in his own music, making reference to Jewish texts, prayers and culture. Among several recordings, his music was included in the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music on Naxos Records. But his wide-ranging style extended from neoclassicism to jazz to 12-tone methods.
“David was one of the most important composers in the U.S.,” Mr. Vali said. “His impact on music in Pittsburgh and also in the U.S. is immense.”
Mr. Stock’s oeuvre, which includes six symphonies, 10 string quartets and 12 concertos, largely steered clear of the highly intellectual strain that had threaded its way through the contemporary classical music scene and universities for much of the 20th century. “It took a while to realize that the ‘normal’ climb-the-ladder academic path wasn’t my path,” he told the Post-Gazette in 2008.
“He was intellectual, but I think he was also influenced by a popular side,” his son Jeffrey Stock said. The composer produced that immediate impact by crafting beautiful, sometimes familiar, melodies or by giving his works funny (or punny) titles, such as “Sea of Reeds,” a woodwind trio, and "Sax Appeal," for four saxophones. Even much of his 12-tone music was couched in the popular language of jazz.
He joined the staff of Duquesne University in 1990, when former PNME percussionist Michael Kumer, then dean of the music school, offered him a position.
"Shortly after David's arrival on the Duquesne faculty, and due to his infectious enthusiasm and relentless advocacy for the music of our time, student performance repertory was liberally sprinkled with early 20th century 'classics,' as well as late 20th century works of established and emerging composers," Mr. Kumer said. "David was a mentor to countless students, many of whom currently enjoy careers — as composers, performers and educators — informed and influenced by his passion for new music."
Mr. Stock retired from that post in 2009 to devote himself full-time to composing.
"David was the personification of new music in Pittsburgh. For me, he was Mr. Modern Music," Robert Croan, the Post-Gazette's former classical music critic said. "With his untiring energy, zealousness and optimism, he brought an awareness of contemporary music and living composers to a local music scene that was mired in the tried-and-true classics. He made modern music interesting to skeptical audiences. He was also an estimable composer, whose music deserves to be heard more in the future."
Most recently, PNME premiered Mr. Stock's "To Light the Dark" this summer, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra gave the first performance of his Sixth Symphony during its season-opener in 2013.
"If there was a performance of music, anyone’s music, anywhere, at any time, somehow David was there. Period," said Mr. Noe, PNME's executive artistic director. "He’d be cheering it on with that inescapable smile of his that went from ear to ear, and he always had time after the performances to stay and talk with the audiences and the performers."
His work has been performed by the major orchestras of New York, Baltimore, Seattle and Cincinnati, among others. He served as composer-in-residence with the PSO and the Seattle Symphony.
“David was a great composer, a great teacher and a great supporter of new music. He was one of those composers who cared deeply about his colleagues, and he did everything he could for the ones he believed in,” said Gerard Schwarz, former music director of the Seattle Symphony, who worked with Mr. Stock for almost four decades and premiered several of his pieces. “A more wonderful friend and colleague one could never find.”
Born in Squirrel Hill and raised in Ambridge and Stanton Heights, Mr. Stock started to compose as a student at Peabody High School. The first public performance of his music came at the high school’s graduation at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. He studied trumpet and composition at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), from which he received both bachelor's and master's degrees, and Brandeis University.
He is survived by his wife, Celia Stock, of Squirrel Hill; his sister Ruth Stock Zober of Stanton Heights; brothers Robert Stock of Oakland and Lee Stock of Milwaukee; son Jeffrey Stock (Hollis Schachner) of Waltham, Mass.; daughters Rachel Stock Spilker (Adam Stock Spilker) of St. Paul, Minn., and Sara Stock Mayo (Jonathan Mayo) of Squirrel Hill; and seven grandchildren. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Ave. in Shadyside.
Contributions may be made to the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, www.pnme.org, P.O. Box 111581, Pittsburgh, PA 15238.
Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1750.
First Published: November 2, 2015, 7:15 p.m.
