Gene Scheer

Gene Sheer

Biography

Gene Scheer (b. 28 April 1958, New York, N.Y.) is an American songwriter, librettist and lyricist.

Scheer received his Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, followed by a scholarship to the University of Cologne and an International Rotary Fellowship to study at the Hochschule Für Musik in Vienna.

Mr. Scheer worked as librettist with Tobias Picker on Thérèse Raquin (based on the Émile Zola novel), commissioned by a consortium of companies including The Dallas Opera San Diego Opera, and the Opéra de Montréal, and premiering in Dallas in November 2001. Most recently, Scheer worked with composer Jennifer Higdon on Cold Mountain, an operatic adaptation of the National Book Award-winning novel of the same name for the co-production by The Santa Fe Opera in 2015 and by Opera Philadelphia in 2016. Also a composer in his own right, Scheer has written a number of songs for Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graves, and Nathan Gunn. With the composer Steven Stucky, Scheer wrote the oratorio August 4, 1964. The work was premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and was performed by the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in May 2011.

Works for Winds

• American Anthem (arr. Brown) (1998/2008)
• American Anthem (arr. DeJonge) (1998/)
• American Anthem (arr. McGiboney) (1998)
• American Anthem (arr. Russo) (1998)

Resources

• Gene Scheer website Accessed 7 November 2021
• Gene Scheer, Wikipedia Accessed 30 June 2017