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Three years after the passing of Stephen Paulus, and I still can’t believe he’s gone. Whenever I need to be reminded of the beauty of simplicity in music, I turn to Stephen’s Pilgrims’ Hymn. It never fails to move me:

When I started this blog, I never anticipated writing this kind of post. But the impression Stephen Paulus made on this composer (and many others I’m certain) and my learning today of his passing yesterday compels me to do so. I first learned of Stephen’s music when I sang several of his traditional Christmas Carol arrangements with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. At first, they struck me as a bit odd – not harmonically conventional at all. But I soon found that “oddness” turned to “freshness” and they quickly became my favorite arrangements of those carols. I later met Stephen when…