Profile

Get to Know Me!

1. Who was your first important musical mentor?

My first important musical mentor was my high school choir teacher, Michael Ravita. He really brought my love of music to the next level by introducing me to lots of the major monuments of choral music—we would listen to recordings together and then talk about them, we’d go to concerts together, and he’d let me conduct our choir and teach pieces to them. I don’t see him very often anymore, but I still consider him a great friend.

2. What apprehensions did you have about becoming a music major, and how did you overcome them?

I was a standout music student in high school—I had won a statewide composition competition, I had had some of my pieces premiered, and I had sung and played saxophone in the All-State ensembles in my home state of Connecticut. But I had never met a professional composer before I went to college in Boston, and I didn’t know how I would measure up against other high school standouts. Not only that, but I also didn’t get into my top choice for college, which was a big blow to my confidence. Becoming a music major instead of studying something “safer” felt like a huge risk, and I was definitely apprehensive about that. But I loved making music too much to let my fears stand in my way. I overcame my insecurities by making the absolute most I could of my college experience: I worked hard and took advantage of every opportunity I could, not only in my school but also in Boston. And it paid off—I grew more than I could have imagined, I went on to get three graduate degrees from that school I didn’t get into, and I’ve made a very fulfilling life for myself in music.

3. How did you finance your music education?

I knew I would need to work to pay for college, but I did my best to make that work related to music somehow. When I was in high school, I got a job transcribing music by ear for state beauty pageants across the country, and I continued to do that through my first two years of college. When I was a sophomore in college, I learned to use a music notation program and started copyediting other composers’ scores and creating examples for music journals and books. I continued to do that through graduate school while also teaching, first as a teaching assistant at my school and then as a lecturer at a local college.

4. What else do you do besides music?

I love to travel, and I consider myself very fortunate to have visited some amazing places and had some special experiences. I’ve dived on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), slept on the Great Wall of China, taken the Trans-Siberian Railroad (Russia), camped on the banks of the Okavango Delta (Botswana), and hitchhiked through the Swiss Alps. I also love to go on long hikes. Some of my favorites have been Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), the Laugavegur (Iceland), the Kalalau Trail (Hawaiʻi), and the Milford Track (New Zealand), although I didn’t finish the last one—I had to be airlifted out of the park by helicopter because of a storm!

Professional Bio

Connecticut native Scott Perkins (he/him) enjoys a multifaceted career as an international prize-winning composer of vocal music, an award-winning scholar, and a dynamic educator. His “beautifully crafted” (American Record Guide) and “tightly composed” (Choral Journal) compositions have been called “dramatic” and “colorful” (The Washington Post), and “perfectly orchestrated” and “haunting” (The Washington Times). He has been commissioned by organizations ranging from the Washington National Opera to the Cantata Singers to the American Guild of Organists, and his work has been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. He has released three discs on the Gothic and Navona labels, and he is published by E. C. Schirmer, Augsburg Fortress, and Paraclete Press. He has been an invited guest lecturer on his music and research at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, The Hartt School, Boston University, Louisiana State University, the University of the Pacific, and the European Centre of Education and Culture.

Perkins’s recent and current compositions have been extended works that support and illuminate the words of contemporary authors on themes of social justice, environmentalism, and mental health. His style can be characterized by its lyricism, modal influences, tonal centricity, and metric flexibility.

Perkins’s research interests are diverse. He has presented on: the integration of Western and non-Western music in musicianship curricula at conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Arts Entrepreneurship Educators; teaching music-reading skills to amateur choirs at a convention of the American Guild of Organists at Yale University; and 17th-century lute song performance practice. He gave the keynote address and a paper on the history and reception of Olivier Messiaen’s work in the United States as part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the Quartet for the End of Time in Zgorzelec, Poland. His work on the music of Benjamin Britten was awarded a prize by the New York State-St. Lawrence Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

A passionate believer that music has the power to better humanity, Perkins’s mission since he began teaching music over 20 years ago has been to inspire students by bringing them a deeper understanding, appreciation, and love of the art. Perkins is Director of the School of Music at California State University, Sacramento, where he was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for University Service. Previously, Perkins served as Head of Composition, Music Theory, and Musicianship at Sacramento State, and as Co-Director of its Festival of New American Music (FeNAM). He has also taught at DePauw University, Central Connecticut State University, Nazareth College, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy.

Perkins earned his PhD in Composition with minors in music theory and music history at the Eastman School of Music, where his primary teacher was Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. He holds an MA in Music Theory and an MA in Music Theory Pedagogy from Eastman, and he has a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in music theory and composition with a sub-concentration in vocal performance from Boston University. He has also studied Hindustani music with Saili Oak, the acclaimed North Indian classical vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana, and Arabic music with the international prize-winning qanun virtuoso and vocalist Ali Paris.

Media

Scott Perkins: A Map to the Next World
For choir, celesta, percussion, and strings

For choir and orchestra

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Get to Know Me!

Professional Bio

Media

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