Tony Schemmer was born in New York City. He was graduated from Yale College, cum laude, with Honors in Theory and Composition of Music. He also studied Jazz theory at Berklee School of Music in Boston. Schemmer’s pop opera “Phaust” premiered at Harvard’s Sander’s Theater in April of 1980, under conductor Philip Morehead. Morehead subsequently joined the Chicago Lyric Opera where he served as Music Administrator, Chorus Master, and then as Head of Music Staff. Schemmer's children's musical play "Bus" was performed by the Boston Children's theater group "PALS" in 1991 in honor of the 500 anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Most recently, his work has been featured by the Kurofune Ensemble in a concert tour of Japan, and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston by the Reciprocity Collaborative. His chamber and choral music, as well as his music for theatrical productions is has also been recently performed in St. Petersburg (Russia), Odessa (Ukraine), Salzburg (the Mozarteum, Austria), Italy, Ireland and in many US cities. His style combines the idioms of American jazz with the features of traditional classical music. Over the past ten years, Schemmer, has also worked closely with and coached rising talents in the classical music world.



Press



Review from the Boston Musical Intelligencer


Schemmer Cornucopia at Salon d’un Refusé


Schemmer’s stimulating bill of fare included ten pieces written over the past two decades...a cornucopia of highly accessible, always engaging and often entrancing musical thought composed with consummate skill – attributes with which Schemmer’s music is refulgent. Even more, Schemmer’s is a distinct voice, one whose ostensible surface charm is but a translucent veil for a most convincing, often forceful argument about the direction of musical style...


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Review from the Boston Musical Intelligencer


Two More Stars from Odessa




...music by Schemmer, first with his 1990, Toney Tango, a brilliant, dramatic work....followed — in elegant paired symmetry with the pre-intermission Tchaikovsky meditation-plus-dance — with a Schemmer bluesy meditation, “Sandor’s Ballad,”....


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Review from Newspaper Vecherniaia Odessa


Strains of violin and piano in the air before the storm


...Tony Schemmer's music ... was extremely cultured! It demonstrated a clear ethos! An ethos of rationalism, of strict form and responsible thought. Given the current fashion for “deconstruction”, where people get all too easily carried away by self-involved sound experiments, where it sometimes seems that composers or artists are defined only by having created an unheard-of combination of sounds, colors, forms – it's very nice to encounter Schemmer's kind of position...


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Review from The Martha's Vineyard Times


Mastery on a Sunday afternoon


...Schemmer's 2006 lush and sweeping "Romanza," with its rich cello narrative followed....and the audience was emphatic in demonstrating their pleasure, bringing the musicians back for a charming encore from Mr. Schemmer's pop opera, "Phaust." Mr. Bäverstam and Mr. Finehouse were joined by violinist Olga Kachanova in a composition derived from the "Spinning Song."...


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Interview from the Boston Musical Intelligencer


Tony Schemmer, the Toney Composer


A certain gentleman composer of long standing in Boston is inviting the public to the third of his annual chamber concerts, Salon d’un Refusé, dedicated exclusively to his own very accessible œuvre. Tony Schemmer, whose life in the arts is unusual, though not without precedent, engaged a cadre of young talent of the so-called “emerging” variety whom he has supported and promoted in concerts often


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