Stephen "Lucky" Mosko scores, recordings, and other material, 1957-2008.

Composer, conductor and professor Stephen “Lucky” Mosko was born in Denver, Colorado on 7 December 1947. After early training under conductor Antonia Brico, Mosko attended Yale University, where he studied music theory and composition under composer Mel Powell. After completing his bachelor’s degree in 1969, Mosko began graduate study at Yale, but soon thereafter followed Powell to the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts). He received his M.F.A. from CalArts in 1972, at which time he immediately joined the CalArts Faculty, with which he remained affiliated until his death.

Mosko compositions drew from a wide variety of techniques throughout his career, including graphic notation, chance operations (including use of the Chinese I Ching), and serialism. He received two Student Composition Awards from BMI (Lovely Mansions [1971] and Night of the Long Knives [1974]), as well as commissions from the Fromm Foundation (Superluminal Connections I: The Atu of Tahuti [1985] and String Quartet [1997]), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (The Road to Tiphareth [1986]) and the Sacramento Symphony (A Garden of Time [1989]).

As a conductor, Mosko’s approach was governed by an openness to many different strains of 20th Century Music. In addition to his work with the CalArts affiliated Twentieth Century Players, he served as principal conductor of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (1988-97), Contemporary Chamber Players (1995-98), and Griffin Music Ensemble (1990-92) among other ensembles. Mosko’s programming tended toward eclecticism, often juxtaposing a wide variety of music within a single evening’s programming. Mosko also worked occasionally in event production, including his most prominent position as music director for the Olympic Contemporary Music Festival organized with support for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984.

Outside of his work in contemporary music, Mosko maintained a lifelong interest in Icelandic folk music, especially the vocal traditions of kvæðaskapur and rímur. He travelled to Iceland several times to study the music, beginning with a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship he received in 1974. Mosko maintained a regular correspondence with Icelandic musicologist Hreinn Steingrimmson, who published a book on the subject in 2000. Icelandic music also provided the central inspiration for two of Mosko’s own compositions, titled Indigenous Music I (1980) and Indigenous Music II (1984).

In his later years, Mosko frequently collaboration with his wife Dorothy Stone, a flautist and co-founder of the group Califonia E.A.R. Unit. Aside from a brief visiting appointment at Harvard from 1990-91, Mosko remained on the faculty of CalArts until shortly before his death. Stephen Mosko died on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 of unknown causes.