Kirke Mechem

[1] His memoir, Believe Your Ears: Life of a Lyric Composer, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2015;[2] it won ASCAP Foundation's 48th annual Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for outstanding musical biography.

His principal teachers at Stanford were Leonard Ratner (harmony and counterpoint) and Sandor Salgo (orchestration and conducting).

On May 13, 2012, Mechem received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Kansas for "notable contributions to choral music and opera".

Some of these pieces, composed as an undergraduate and graduate student, were published, including "Make A Joyful Noise", (recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) and "Give Thanks Unto The Lord."

Premiered in 1980 by the San Francisco Opera, Tartuffe has since played to audiences in Canada, China, Russia, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Japan, as well as in the United States.

[7] The success of Tartuffe encouraged Mechem to embark upon an opera based on the life of abolitionist, John Brown.

In the twenty-some years between John Brown's inception and premiere, Mechem wrote many other compositions, including two new operas: The Rivals, based upon Sheridan's classic play of the same name; and Pride and Prejudice, on Jane Austen's famous novel.

"The Rivals" received its professional premiere in September, 2011 by the Skylight Opera Theater, Milwaukee to rave reviews—"A hit, an instant classic".

Five years later he was invited to attend the Russian-language premiere of Tartuffe by the Mussorgsky National Theater for Opera and Ballet[10] in St. Petersburg.