About

Paul Frucht is an American composer hailed for his “individual voice” and “poignant utterance” by Gramophone Magazine and “sense of lyricism, driving pulse, and great urgency” (WQXR).” His music has been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Sun Valley Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Time For Three, Carpe Diem String Quartet, Geneva Music Festival, Princeton Music Festival, Knoxville Symphony Merchant and Gould Concertmaster Series, and Buffalo Chamber Music Society. Additionally, his music has been heard frequently on SiriusXM’s “Symphony Hall” with Martin Goldsmith.

In the 2024-25 season, Paul’s new double bass concerto written for GRAMMY-winning double bassist Ranaan Meyer was premiered by Philadelphia Youth Orchestra with a subsequent performance by the New Jersey Youth Symphony, both of which commissioned the work along with Sun Valley Music Festival. Additionally, Paul’s music was performed by the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra and GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio. The 2025-26 season will feature performances of Paul’s double concerto Finding Religion for violin, cello, and orchestra with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. The was written for cellist Julian Schwarz, who will perform it with ACO and WSO and who premiered alongside violinist Jeffrey Multer and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz in 2023. Additionally, Paul will make his Carnegie Hall debut in April 2026 with a performance of his work Dawn by the MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble. Performances of Paul’s percussion concerto Escape Velocity with the Dallas-based Voices of Change and a performance of his work for flute and string orchestra There Are Stars with flutist Katie Althen and the Berks County Sinfonietta round out the season. Paul also looks forward to fulfilling commissions for future seasons for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta and the NYC-based Exponential Ensemble. 

Paul has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an artist fellowship award from the state of Connecticut, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the Brian H. Israel Prize from the Society of New Music, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon, Arthur Friedman, and Gena Raps Prizes, the American Composers Orchestra’s 2016 Audience Choice Award and has been recognized for his work by the Copland House, American Modern Ensemble, the Nashville Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Red Note New Music Festival, Chelsea Symphony,  Periapsis Music and Dance, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and the Spectrum Chamber Music Society.

Paul has long prioritized cultural engagement through his work as a composer and artistic leader. In 2013, he wrote Dawn, in memory of Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal, Dawn Hochsprung, who was his middle school principal when he was a student at Rogers Park Middle School in Danbury, CT, which neighbors Newtown, CT. The work honors her legacy of courage and dedication to education and has been performed around the United States by the American Composers Orchestra, Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, Bowling Green State University Orchestra, Chelsea Symphony, Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, and Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. The wind band version was recently premiered by the UMKC Conservatory Wind Symphony led by Steven Davis, who will lead a subsequent performance at Interlochen Center for the Arts with the World Youth Wind Symphony in August 2023. Paul looks forward to future performances at the Charles Ives Music Festival and Carnegie Hall. Additionally, in 2021, the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra led by Yuga Cohler gave the world premiere of A More Perfect Union, an orchestral song cycle for baritone and orchestral based on the speeches of Pres. Obama, commissioned for baritone Jorell Williams and the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. Paul and Yuga collaborated on the work with Cody Keenan, Pres. Obama’s chief speechwriter and the work was profiled in a NowThis feature.

 In 2015, Paul founded the Charles Ives Music Festival (CIMF), of which he currently serves as the artistic director. Based in Ridgefield, CT, CIMF explores the rich history of Ives and his legacy, American music, through dynamic artist concerts and interactive educational events, with a particular focus on presenting the works of living American composers. The festival presents over ten concerts and events per year, primarily concentrated during the first two weeks of August when the festival holds its educational programming, which brings talented artist-faculty from leading American orchestras and chamber ensembles to CT to perform side-by-side with 50 youth musicians. Renowned American musicians and composers including composers Kati Agócs, Justin Dello Joio, Kevin Puts, violinist Charles Yang, pianist Peter Dugan, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, double bassist Ranaan Meyer, cellist Julian Schwarz, and harpist Emily Levin and numerous other artists from leading American orchestras and chamber ensembles.

A passionate educator of all ages, he has been a faculty member at New York University’s Steinhardt School since 2015. Paul received his doctoral of musical arts and master of music degrees at the Juilliard School and a B.M. from New York University, where he studied with Justin Dello Joio.