Dr. Naomi Stephan’s background is choral/vocal, and spans solo and group performing of church music, oratorios, art songs, opera, medieval music, madrigals and contemporary music.

She received two Fulbright scholarships in Voice, and her B.A. in Voice from the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and subsequently, was awarded a German Government Grant (DAAD) to write a dissertation on the Songs of Robert Schumann. In the 1990’s she transitioned to composing choral music. Dr. Stephan is particularly interested in using unusual combinations of voices and instruments, combining neo-medieval styles with fugal, percussive, and rhythmic experimentation while steadfastly maintaining a modal, tonal or harmonically-based foundation to her choral writing.

Many of Dr. Stephan’s choral compositions are commissions, and/or winners of competitions. Her first composition, Spring Song, was the only one by a living woman composer to be played at the Chorus America Convention in L.A. in 1993. With the help of a grant from the Thanks Be to Grandmother Foundation, she has completed Mater in Memoriam: For Irene, a Requiem in for SSAA and Chamber Ensemble, or for SSAA and Piano. MIMI, as she likes to call it, was performed by the Washington Women’s Chorus in Washington D.C. in April 2003. Dr. Stephan’s music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, at competitions, choral festivals, and by individual choruses. She is a member of the International Association of Women Composers and ASCAP.