Composer Stacy Garrop writes music in many genres, with a storytelling streak connecting much of her output. She has had works commissioned by major U.S. performing organizations. Garrop was born on December 5, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Her mother was an enthusiastic performer in musicals, and she was taken to see West Side Story. She grew up in California, singing in a choir at school and also playing alto saxophone in her high school band. The usual pop music diet for girls Garrop's age did not begin until her late preteens. Garrop attended the University of Michigan, earning a bachelor's degree in composition. She studied various instruments there, including French horn and cello, with an eye toward mastering orchestration. Garrop went on to the University of Chicago, earning a master's degree in music there in 1995. She received a doctorate from Indiana University at Bloomington. In 2000, Garrop joined the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago. She remained there until 2016, resigning then in order to pursue full-time composition. Garrop's music, she wrote on her website, "is centered on dramatic and lyrical storytelling." That was true even in abstract forms like the string quartet; Garrop's String Quartet No. 2 ("Demons and Angels") was written about an ex-boyfriend whose personality changed after their relationship ended, and who went on to commit multiple murders. That work garnered considerable publicity, but so did such works as Forging Steel, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; My Dearest Ruth for soprano and piano, with a text about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by her husband, Martin Ginsburg; and Glorious Mahalia, inspired by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. Garrop has been exceptionally successful in attracting commissions from U.S. orchestras, chamber ensembles, and choruses, and she has won orchestral music competitions sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Omaha Symphony, among other groups. Her orchestral works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, among many other groups, and her wind ensemble commissions include those from both the U.S. Marine Band and the U.S. Navy Band. Well over 25 of Garrop's compositions had been recorded by the mid-2020s, including her oratorio Terra Nostra, which appeared on an album released by the Cedille label in 2024. ~ James Manheim, Rovi