Paul Stevens


Paul Stevens
  • Professor of Horn
  • Brass & Percussion

Contact Info

314 Murphy Hall
1530 Naismith Drive
Lawrence, KS 66045-3103

Biography

D.M.A. University of California, Los Angeles; M.M. San Francisco Conservatory; A.B. University of California - Berkeley

The Los Angeles Times calls Paul Stevens playing "...finely detailed, elegant...sailing over technical hurdles with an assurance marked by unfailing intonation and pristine ornamentation in all ranges..." He is professor of horn at the University of Kansas where he plays with the Kansas Brass Quintet, the Kansas Woodwinds, is a frequent extra with the Kansas City Symphony and Ballet and is principal horn of the Mozart Classical Orchestra of Los Angeles. In 2018 he was a Visiting Artist at the Grieg Conservatory in Bergen, Norway and the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Italy.

As an orchestral player he has performed with leading orchestras such as: the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Oregon Symphony and the San Diego Opera. He has performed on principal horn under such conductors as: Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Edo DeWaart, Kent Nagano and Stanislav Skrowazewski.

During more than a decade in Hollywood, he played on many motion picture soundtracks and television films, including over fifty episodes of Star Trek: The Next GenerationDeep Space Nine and Voyager, many episodes of Jag, and movies such as Ransom, What Dreams May Come, Dead Again, The Land Before Time, Star Trek: Generations, the Flintstones and several Disney projects; including Fantasmic! and Mickey's Nutcracker. He worked with such composers as James Horner, John Williams, Bruce Broughton, Henry Mancini, Danny Elfman and Dennis McCarthy. Audio projects ranged from Placido Domingo to Michael Bolton to the rap group "Outkast."

As a chamber musician he is a Permanent Member of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society and a longtime member of the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival/Festival Mozaic. Other appearances have included the Oregon Bach Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival of San Diego, La Jolla Summer Fest., Apple Hill Chamber Players, the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, Mozart in Monterey and the Fairbanks (Alaska) Summer Arts Festival.

He was educated at Juilliard under Myron Bloom (22 years principal horn with the Cleveland Orchestra under Szell), the San Francisco Conservatory under Arthur Krehbiel (40 years principal in San Francisco, Detroit and Chicago under Reiner), and UCLA under Richard Todd and Brian O'Connor (1st call Hollywood Studio Players for over twenty years).