Paul Siskind's music encompasses many genres, and has been performed across the country and abroad by renowned ensembles such as the Minnesota Orchestra, the Arditti String Quartet, the New Amsterdam Singers, Continuum, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. Works have been commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers, the Leif Ericksson International Festival, the Orchestra of Northern New York, the Monmouth Civic Chorus, the Gotham Chamber Orchestra, the St. Olaf College Band, the Mi-Bemol Saxophone Ensemble, and private individuals. His music is published by G. Schirmer Inc., Cantando Musikkforlag, and Sweet Child Music, and has been commercially recorded on the Innova, New Ariel, Equilibrium, and ERM Media labels.
He has received numerous composition awards and prizes, including the 2004 Silliman Anthem Awards, the 1999 New Music Delaware Prize, the 1996 Minnesota Orchestra Perfect Pitch program, the 1995 G. Schirmer Young Americans' Art Song Competition, the 1995 Friends and Enemies of New Music contest, and the 1994 Omaha Symphony Guild Prize, as well as honorable mention in the 1994 ASCAP Nissim Competition. He received a Composition Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation in 1993, as well as grants from the New York State Music Fund, Meet The Composer, the Puffin Foundation, the American Music Center, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the National Federation of Music Clubs.
Dr. Siskind was invited to attend the first international conference on Words and Music in 1994, sponsored by the Latin American Music Center at Indiana University. He has also been a guest composer at the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa (2006), the University of Delaware's New Music Delaware 1999 Festival, and the University of Colorado's Artsweek '92. Other presentations include conferences of the College Music Society, the Society of Composers Inc., and the New York State School Music Association.
Dr. Siskind is on the faculty of the Crane School of Music, SUNY-Potsdam, where he was voted "Teacher of the Year" by the student body three times. He completed his Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Minnesota, after studies at Queens College, the Crane School of Music, and Tufts University (where he completed a degree in biology and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa). His composition teachers included such diverse figures as Dominick Argento, Thea Musgrave, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Starer, Robert Washburn, Arthur Frackenpohl, Eliott Del Borgo, Paul Steinberg, and T.J. Anderson. Along with teaching, Dr. Siskind has worked as a composer-in-residence for the Education Department of Minnesota Opera, Twin Cities Chapter Coordinator for the American Composers Forum, Music Director of One Voice Mixed Chorus, and as an Auditor for the New York State Council on the Arts.
