Stephen Shewan

Stephen Shewan laughing while seated at the piano

Stephen Shewan practicing

Stephen Shewan preparing for a concert with Emily Shewan

Stephen Shewan

Stephen Shewan laughing while seated at the piano

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New Piece Commissioned by Timothy Zifer, DMA, Professor of Music, Music Conservatory - University of Evansville

"I'm deeply honored to have received a commission from trumpet professor extraordinaire, Tim Zifer from the University of Evansville Music Conservatory. Tim will be performing a recital of works in January, and shortly after will record works by James Stephenson, Tony Plog, David Wyatt, my new piece and others. Thanks Tim. This is going to be fun!" Stephen Shewan

Now available from Pavane Publishing

News & Quotes

The Piping Rock Singers, from Houston, Texas, under the direction of Kevin Clarke recently released a CD which includes Shewan's (2017) SATB a capella choral work "Virga Jesse".

Listen to the recording of Virga Jesse here.

Shewan’s “Four Poems by Laura E Richards Volume 1” received an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Freudig Singers Choral Composition Competition.

In 2018, Shewan won two national choral contests: “The Little Cradle Rocks, ” for SATB choir and oboe, won the American Composer’s Forum and Vocal Essence Welcome Christmas Carol Contest.

Listen to the premiere performance by Vocal Essence under the direction of Philip Brunelle here.

Also in 2018, Shewan’s “Mother Goose Gems” received the Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize at the Challey School of Music at North Dakota State University.

In 2016, Shewan’s popular new setting of “Silent Night” for SATB choir and piano (also a version for choir and orchestra) won the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay Christmas Carol Contest.

Listen to the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay premiere here.

“The Sonata for Horn and Piano features contemporary sounds presented in an accessible way… It is a strong new work for horn that deserves to be performed often… Congratulations to Stephen Shewan for this excellent addition to the repertoire.”

Katie Johnson, Horn Call (February 2016)

“The Elegy for Strings is a melancholy work with beautiful climaxes. Movement II of the Sonata for clarinet and piano is a beautiful Ballad. Shewan’s music garnered acclaim years ago from David Bond (2000) and Philip Greenfield (2006). I like it, too.”

Barry Kilpatrick, American Record Guide (2016)

“This is an intriguing and unique composition that many performers and audiences will be delighted to experience.”

Brian Winegardner, ITG Journal (March 2016, review of the Suite for Trumpet and Piano)

“That Hoedown! is terrific fun” and in King David’s Dance, “jazz meets pop meets bop meets mambo meets Stravinsky in this music orgy of biblical proportions. It’s all great fun.”

Colin Clark, Fanfare, November/December 2015

“Stephen Shewan is a considerable composer who deserves a wide audience.”

John Rutter

“Stephen Shewan is a very talented composer, worthy of much higher acclaim than he has attained already. His music is highly evocative and expressive.”

American Record Guide

“The Celebration Overture has an infectious energy brought about via bright orchestration and stompable rhythms, a sort of Copland but with Bernstein’s fire…the Elegy is moving…the splendidly intimate central ballad of the Sonata for clarinet and piano…if the spirit of Ives does to an extent hang around the finale (March) the wit is all Shewan’s.”

Fanfare Magazine

“The most pleasurable work (on the program), A Celebration Overture (for orchestra) was unabashedly boisterous. Many times, its style was cubist Aaron Copland’s harmonies, rhythms and colors like his, but cut up and re-spliced, imaginatively and infectiously.”

The Houston Chronicle

(Shewan) “shows a well-developed understanding of choral voice leading, good control over it’s potential for expressing excitement, and a comfortable command of both lyrical expression and varied romantic-to-modern harmonization.”