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Stuart McIntosh was born near Liverpool, England in 1949. After an early career as a professional flautist he settled into high school teaching. His teaching career took him throughout England, to Singapore for five years, and in 1995 to St. Louis, Missouri. In St. Louis, Stuart McIntosh was Director of Choirs at John Burroughs School; Choir Director at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion (University City), and Assistant Director of the St. Louis Chamber Chorus. He returned to England in 2000.
From a very early age McIntosh composed and arranged music for bands, choirs and orchestras. While still in college his early works for choir and orchestra Shades of Night and Magnificat were performed at the University of London - Goldsmiths' College, England.
McIntosh has continued to compose and arrange throughout his long career though the last few years have been the most prolific. He has composed some 70 pieces in that short time. They range from church anthems (including several commissioned works) to school songs and commissions from the St. Louis Chamber Chorus. Included in these are the South African folk song Old Tante Fiena Snuifbek, a Scottish folk song Baloo Baleerie, a Christmas carol Rocking featured on the St. Louis Chamber Chorus's compact disc A Chamber Christmas, and Frozen Teardrops Fall set to a text by an 8th-grade student at John Burroughs School, all published or soon to be published by Alliance Music. The part-song My True Love Hath My Heart is published by Masterworks Press as part of its St. Louis Voices series.
The Ruling Moon - a setting of a text by the English poet William Bell - is by far the largest and most imposing piece of unaccompanied choral music to date. Written for the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, the text is highly unusual in its somewhat impressionistic language and is the perfect vehicle for an unusual piece for choir. Much of the work is based on the opening two chords (hummed by the sopranos and altos). The bulk of the text is delivered by tenor and soprano soloists (often against the opening chords). There are several imposing climaxes in the work but the ending is hypnotic in its dying cadence. The work was premiered by the St. Louis Chamber Chorus in April 1997 conducted by fellow Englishman Philip Barnes to critical acclaim. In the same program McIntosh's new performing edition of the Requiem by Flemish composer Jean Richafort (ca.1480-ca.1548) was premiered. This "parody mass" uses a melody by Richafort's teacher Josquin Des Prez as its main canonic motif sung in French. The rest of the work is sung in the standard Latin of the Requiem service for the dead.
McIntosh's breadth of interest in all kinds of music is demonstrated in three other pieces written for the St. Louis Chamber Chorus - an arrangement of a traditional Swedish Christmas carol - Välkommen, du härliga Juletid, an arrangement of Gretchen Peters's modern country song On a Bus to St. Cloud recently premièred in Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis and now also featured in a version specially commissioned for the Gateway Men's Chorus and on a CD by the same group. May 1998 saw the première performance of a new arrangement of the Gershwin classic Our Love is Here to Stay, specially written for the St. Louis Chamber Chorus. A more recent work of McIntosh, a set of four songs called Songs of Life and Love, was commissioned by the St. Louis Metro District for its All-District Honors Choir and received its first performance on November 21, 1998 at Forest Park Community College.
Stuart McIntosh's wife, Iona, was also a member of the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, singing soprano and volunteering as one of the two librarians.