Lake Forest Composer Is Alive And Well Making Music

“Most people think all composers are dead.”

— Jim Stephenson, world-class composer.

Fortunately for Lake Forest resident Jim Stephenson, that’s not true.

“When I was 18, at a party someone asked me if I would be a composer, and I said, ‘Are you kidding? No way! All composers are dead. I never thought it would become my passion later in life.”

Now, his works have been performed by leading orchestras nationally and internationally.

Stephenson will conduct his piece on the famous headless horseman, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, at the ’s opening concerts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9-10, at the College of Lake County’s James Cumber Center for the Performing Arts. Maestro Alan Heatherington will narrate the piece.

“Tunes come from folk songs from the Catskills, where the story of Ichabod Crane takes place. There’s a hymn tune I draw upon in the story,” Stephenson said.

The piece also contains many musical puns. “Ichabod Crane is tall and lanky, so the bassoon gets to play for him — a long and lanky instrument,” he said.

For the character of Brom Bones, it’s the trombone.

• Listen to an audio clip of the chase scene in which Ichabod tries to outrun the headless horseman.

• Listen to an audio clip of Ichabod and his sweetheart’s love theme.

High-tech composing

The piece is close to Stephenson’s heart, as it was the first orchestral piece he ever wrote back in 1996.

He is a truly modern composer. When he gets an idea, he captures it in speech or song with the voice recorder on his iPhone. With his laptop and a mini-keyboard, he can compose almost anywhere and at any time.

“For a composer, there’s no such thing as a 9-to-5 job,” he said.

Stephenson is commissioned for his work, and often draws inspiration from his clients.

“I’m always writing a piece from somebody. I could be inspired by their body language or a word they say,” he said. “I can get inspiration from pretty much anything — even something like a coffee mug.”

“You get an image — either visual or aural,” he said. “I take that image and add my personality to it.”

Bringing his music to children

Stephenson, originally from Lockport, Ill., lives in Lake Forest with his wife and four children, ages 14, 11, 10 and 7. “They all have a different interest in music,” he said. His wife, Sally, is a violinist, and his older children play violin, piano and the cello.

“When my first child, Deanna, was born, my wife and I were in Iowa sharing a house with other musical parents. I wrote a piece based on all of us and our kids,” he said.

Each parent played the portion relating to their child. “What I would like to do is write a piece that (my children) can play,” he said.

Stephenson is experienced when it comes to sharing his passion for music with children. In 2002, during the 17 years while Stephenson was a professional trumpeter with Naples Philharmonic in Florida, some of his colleagues asked him to create an educational show for children. The result was Compose Yourself!, Stephenson’s landmark work, which has been performed more than 200 times all over the country.

“You meet each family — the brass family, strings family, etc. Kids have a short attention span, so I wanted to create something that was funny, energetic and has a lot of movement,” he said.

The show derives its name from a halfway point when children get to compose a piece of music themselves.

“I love watching the kids’ faces,” he said. “They really love it.”

Stephenson hopes Compose Yourself! eventually will have a DVD and interactive website.

• Watch videos of Compose Yourself! on Stephenson’s website.

Each piece becomes your friend

Stephenson said the best moments in his work come when “Everything is just right — when the orchestra, audience and critics love (a piece). Each piece becomes your friend as you start working on it. It’s born from your mind, you let it grow, mature and then send it out into the world,” he said.

Hearing his own work performed is “refreshing and frustrating — mostly refreshing,” he said. “I let people do their own thing. Music can have its own personality. I’ll learn something, as well — I’ll think, ‘Wow, I never thought of it that way.’ ”

While he listens, he’s also constantly judging himself as a composer — observing the audience’s reaction to his work and learning from it.

Stephenson said when he goes to schools to talk to kids about his work, he will ask, “What composers can you think of?” When the children inevitably say Beethoven, Mozart and other greats, Stephenson asks what they have in common.

“They’re all dead!” is the eventual realization.

He tells them: “Well, here I am. I’m alive and I write music. If you work hard at it, you can do it, too.”

For ticketing information for the ’s opening concerts, call 1-847-295-2135.