"His vocal lines are lyrical and shapely. His writing for orchestra, too, is beautiful. And he has an eclectic command of styles outside his own."
"Lovely arias... Elegant ensembles... A talented composer and lyricist."
"Eyerly is clearly a composer on the right creative path."
Composer and librettist Scott Eyerly has won acclaim across a wide range of genres. From The House of the Seven Gables (praised by Opera News for its "maximum drama and melodically memorable set pieces") to Missa Brevis No. 2 (called by Choral Journal "a study in beauty and simplicity"), Eyerly brings to all his works a direct, American lyricism.
Eyerly notes, "I grew up singing hymns, but also show tunes. Then at college, I studied with composers from opposite corners of the ring, William Bolcom and Elliott Carter. In those days, after a lesson with Carter in the morning, I'd rush to rehearse songs for a theater revue that afternoon!
Later I taught musical theater courses at Juilliard, interviewing masters like Sondheim, Harnick, and Burton Lane. My love of musicals has always 'balanced' my love of the longhairs."
Little surprise, then, that Eyerly's recent projects include Arlington Sons, a concert scene for opera/Broadway baritone David Pittsinger and his son Richard (premiere, Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, October 2012); Creatures Great and Small, a setting of whimsical poems about animals, for mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore (premiere, Megeve, France, August 2018); and POOCH, a musical comedy set in modern day Manhattan, about the search for love, success, a lost dog - and Puccini (first staged workshop, Seagle Music Colony, NY, September 2018).
Other works include Spires, for choir and organ, commissioned by Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; Source, composed for virtuoso clarinetist Alan Kay, introduced at the Cape May Music Festival, NJ; The House of the Seven Gables, a full-length opera produced by Manhattan School of Music and now available on double CD from Albany Records; Exultation Overture, commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony; The Palm at the End, a sextet for piano and winds, commissioned by Chamber Music America; and Variations on a Theme by Honegger, winner of the Louisville Orchestra New Music Prize.
Eyerly's works have been broadcast on National Public Radio and performed at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Miller Theater, the Blossom Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York, interpreted by such artists as Paul Sperry, David Alan Miller, JoAnn Falletta, Windscape, Hexagon, the Renaissance City Winds, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.
An active lecturer and teacher, Eyerly is on the faculty of The Juilliard School. In 2007 he was invited by the Mahaiwe Theater in the Berkshires to present a lecture before each Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast, a series which continues to grow in popularity and is now available online. Born in a suburb of Chicago, he and his wife live in New York City.