Although at one time he said his only interest was playing in rock and roll bands, a professor of music at SIUC recieved a $500 composer award for a sixth consecutive year for his original compositions in classical music.

Frank L. Stemper, professor of music, received $500 from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) on September 1.

Stemper who started taking piano lessons at the age of five said he was inspired as a child by the Beatles, Cream and Boulez Couplin, and he has always had a love of music.

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I never took classical piano lessons, he said. I was always in rock bands in high school. When I got into college and I heard Beethoven, he was my big inspiration.

This is a great honor, Stemper said. The ASCAP standard award licenses people’s music, so when my music gets played, I receive a little bit of money.

Stemper said knowing his music, which he describes as classical contemporary and avant garde, is being played all over the world is the best thing about winning the award.

I came from a half-and-half family of music, he said. My father is a psychiatrist and my mother is a jazz singer. If you cross both my parents together, then you get my music:weird contemporary avant garde.

Stemper said it usually takes him anywhere from three months to a year to finish a piece of music.

I usually just sit down at the piano and goof off, he said. Music is my big inspiration.

Bob Weiss, director of the School of Music, said Stemper is very deserving of this award.

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He deserves this award because he is very prolific and a creative composer who is also very successful, he said. His music is creative, complex, and always unpredictable.

Stemper said he plans to perform a new composition for acoustic piano and computer in Los Angeles next February.