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Kirke Mechem was born and raised in Kansas, entered Stanford as a creative-writing major, changed his major to music, earned an MA at Harvard, conducted and taught at Stanford, and turned down a similar job at Harvard in order to concentrate on composition.
He lived three years in Vienna, where he came to the attention of Josef Krips, who later championed the composer's orchestral works as conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. Mechem was guest of honor at the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and was invited back for an all-Mechem symphonic concert by the USSR Radio-Television Orchestra. He was granted a lifetime-achievement award by the National Opera Association, and the first honorary Doctor of Arts degree given by the University of Kansas. Eight doctoral dissertations have been written on his music.
Mechem has composed in almost every musical genre. His operas have received international acclaim: “sharp, lively opera buffa” (Die Presse, Vienna); his symphonies won brilliant reviews in Moscow “a master symphonist” (Musical Observer, Russia); his string quartet was played on tour by both the Czech Quartet and the New Zurich Quartet, “searches sharply and deeply without sentimentality” (San FranciscoExaminer); his piano sonata was called “an important work, rich in ideas, modern without exaggeration” (I Vradyni, Athens, Greece); His many choral works have earned him the title, “dean of American choral composers.” The Choral Journal called him “one of America’s most prolific and imaginative composers...Suite for Chorus is a stroke of genius.”
His memoir, Believe Your Ears: Life of a Lyric Composer, was winner of the ASCAP 48th annual award in 2016 for "outstanding musical biography." Its final paragraph is often quoted:
"Great art is more than beautiful, more than joyful, more than exciting, more than consoling. It is life-affirming. It brings forth our greatest faith in the human race. When I hear overwhelmingly great music, I feel wonder and gratitude that one human being has been able to construct such magnificence. Tears come to my eyes, as they do when I walk into an exhibit and am suddenly struck by the immense beauty of a painting. If mankind can conceive such visions and achieve the enormous skill to make them live in the hearts of all of us, what are we not capable of? A work of art is a celebration of humanity—not only the humanity of its creator, but of the capacity of all humans to understand, to love and to be nourished by art. This phenomenon is a kind of miracle, which we must forever treasure."
