Jack W. Stamps

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Jack Stamps has devoted a lifetime to pursuing a variety of musical outlets. His parents claim as a one-year-old, he could pick out the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” 45rpm out of a pile of random 45s and can count the words to the tune among his first. He was a founding member of the perennial San Antonio alternative rock band, The Robertsons and spent 10 years, starting in 1987, writing and singing songs with them. In 1997, he began work as a solo artist under the name Pelòn and has recorded numerous collections of alt-pop songs.
Feeling an increasing desire for more complex musical structures, in 2001, he turned his attention to music composition and has since sought to synthesize a relationship between contemporary classical music and his alt-rock background. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has studied with Donald Grantham, Dan Welcher, Russell Pinkston and Yevgeniy Sharlat.
He has written for a variety of different ensembles and has been performed in the US, South America and Europe. He has received commissions from such ensembles as SOLI Chamber Ensemble, Musical Bridges Around The World and The Tosca String Quartet; the resident quartet for pop music icon David Byrne. Jack's work has been featured at numerous festivals and conferences in North America, Europe and South America, including the International Computer Music Conference, the Society of Electro-acoustic Music in the United States conference, Electronic Music Midwest and others.
Of Jack’s second string quartet, critic Mike Greenberg writes, “The piece reveals a remarkable compositional discipline -- Mozartean clarity, Brahmsian contrapuntal intricacy -- and a very subtle ear for weaving hints of American pop and jazz idioms through a fresh, vibrant modernist canvas.”
His recent research and compositions reflect a reconciliation of opposing musical styles such as Sufist devotional music, Jazz, Zappa and Pérotin while exhibiting increasingly prominent use of extended graphic design elements in his scores. In contrast, he recently completed a unique electronic podcast pop-opera called NIGHTLIFE, of which Radioindy.com writes, "Nightlife: A Pop-Opera In Three Acts" is both a provocative and satisfying piece of work that demands, and, more importantly, rewards multiple listens.”
Jack still remains active as a songwriter and private instructor and lives happily in San Antonio, where he is a visiting lecturer in composition, electronic music and theory at Trinity University and Northwest Vista College. He is currently working on a surround sound version of Buck Jones, a three-act opera he wrote in 2006. He is also an avid trail runner.
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