Paul Scherer

 

Paul Scherer - Composer / pianist

Paul Scherer is an award-winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer whose work inhabits the vibrant intersection of architectural dramaturgy and accessible modernism. Whether scoring large-scale choral-orchestral works or intimate French chansons, Scherer infuses his music with a signature harmonic language—one that offers surprising depth while remaining deeply rewarding for both the audience and the performer.

Scherer’s expansive catalog includes two full-scale operas, four operettas, and two musicals, alongside several albums of original music produced both under his own name and in collaboration with Polish jazz vocalist Agnieszka Iwanska. His versatility extends to the screen; his score for the film Jewish Life in Europe before WWII is now preserved in the permanent archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and he composed scores for the short films Remember Me When I Leave and In the Habit of Hiding – both commissioned by the Chicago Sound of Silent Film Festival.

A dedicated scholar and collaborator, Scherer served as the Composer-in-Residence for the Downers Grove Choral Society and is the past president of the Chicago Center for Music Education. His academic journey spans a BA from the University of Delaware and an MS in Music Technology from Indiana University, with advanced composition studies at The Juilliard School under Evan Fein and Dalit Warshaw.

Artist Statement


I create music that listens deeply. Specializing in opera, songs, chamber and choral works, I build sonic spaces where language dictates the form. My approach is rooted in composition as dramaturgy: I use harmonic tension and memory-driven melodies to give narrative weight to every syllable. My music is unapologetically accessible yet contemporary —fresh, melodic, and built on the belief that the voice is the ultimate storyteller.

Every text carries an emotional resonance; I simply build the room where it can live. Whether working with public domain plays or commissioned libretti, I shape melodic arcs that mirror the psyche. To me, composition is dramaturgical sound. I explore the rich textures that make a performance memorable.  I do not write the words, but I transform them into atmosphere.



Selected Works

  • Remember Me When I Leave | Film Score for Short Film – commissioned by the Chicago Sound of Silent Film Festival (premiere April 2026).  An evocative and rich chamber music score performed live to accompany a short non-dialog film by Caitlin Lim.  Questioning their place in a world where physical spaces fade, a figure awakens in an unfamiliar home, forced to confront memories once forgotten.

  • The Magnificent Misdeeds of Madame Blanc | Operetta for mezzo-soprano & piano (premiere, 2025 New Music Chicago). Co-created with librettist Germaine Shames, this work is a sharp-witted, lyrical character study of a flamboyantly amoral heroine. It balances satirical bite with soaring vocalism to chart the rise and reign of a master manipulator.

  • In Venice | Chamber Opera commissioned by librettist Germaine Shames (premiere in Concert, New York, 2024).

  • La Trout Lily | Jazz-inflected chamber opera (premiere August 2026- commissioned by the Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival).  Set in the humid, high-stakes atmosphere of 1960s Louisiana, this collaboration with Wallace Wilhoit, Jr. is a Southern Gothic tapestry of memory, murder, and spectral sisterhood. The score weaves jazz sensibilities into a dark, narrative-driven operatic landscape.

  • The Rumi Cycle | Suite of five tableaux for treble choir. An immersive journey into the 13th-century mysticism of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī. Through restrained vocal textures and ethereal lines, the cycle navigates the delicate architecture of divine longing and spiritual transformation.

  • Les Saisons & Le Temps du Jour | Song cycles for soprano & piano (premiere 2024). A diptych of French art song spanning four centuries of poetry (17th–20th). These cycles bridge the gap between Francis Poulenc’s expressive wit and a contemporary harmonic language, offering a sophisticated exploration of temporal and seasonal transformation.

  • Kaddish | Setting of the traditional Hebrew/Aramaic prayer for chorus and orchestra (premiered 205)

  • Hashkiveinu | Setting of the traditional Hebrew prayer for women’s chorus a cappella.  (premiered, November 2023 at the SCI concert series, Athens OH)

  • Femme Noire, | Setting for chorus and orchestra of a poem by the first president of Senegal that depicts and honors the women of Africa (premiered 2017)