Paul Schoenfield, a man whose music is widely performed and continues to draw an ever-expanding group of devoted fans, is among those all-too-rare composers whose work combines exuberance and seriousness, familiarity and originality, lightness and depth. His work is inspired by the whole range of musical experience, popular styles both American and foreign, vernacular and folk traditions, and the ‘normal’ historical traditions of cultivated music making, often treated with sly twists. Like certain other 20th-21st century composers, he looks for his inspiration in the national spirit, which in his case he describes specifically as that of the Jewish American. The spirit is, however, multifaceted: like Charles Ives, he enjoys the mixing of ideas that grew up in entirely different worlds, making them converse, so to speak, and delighting in the surprises that their interaction evokes. Above all, he has achieved the rare fusion of an extremel y complex and rigorous compositional mind with an instinct for accessibility and a reveling in sound that sometimes borders on the manic.

A native of Detroit born in 1947, Paul Schoenfield began musical training at the age of six, eventually studying piano with Julius Chajes, Ozan Marsh, and Rudolf Serkin. He holds a degree from Carnegie-Mellon University, as well as a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of Arizona. A man of broad interests, he is also an avid student of mathematics and the Talmud.  He held his first teaching post in Toledo, Ohio, lived on a kibbutz in Israel, was a free-lance composer and pianist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and ultimately moved to Cleveland and then to Israel. He and his family currently have homes in Israel and the United States.

Mr. Schoenfield has received commissions and grants from the NEA, Chamber Music America, the Rockefeller Fund, the Minnesota Commissioning Club, American Composers Forum, Soli Deo Gloria of Chicago, the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, and many other organizations. Although he is now rarely performs publicly, he was formerly an active pianist, touring the United States, Europe, and South America as a soloist and with groups including Music from Marlboro. Among his recordings are the complete violin and piano works of Bartok with Sergiu Luca. His compositions can be heard on the Angel, Decca, Innova, Vanguard, EMI, Koch, BMG, and the New World labels.