Dr. Stephen Weber's newest album searches for beauty in many guises

Dr. Stephen Weber, professor of music and chair of the division of arts and humanities at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, has recently released his fifth album of original compositions entitled “Beautyquest.”

A concept album with 16 songs relating to beauty in its many guises, “Beautyquest” features a diverse array of musical styles from cinematic and orchestral to minimalist and ambient, with piano improvisations, electronica and four rock songs with Weber doubling as vocalist.

“What I tried to do on “Beautyquest” is use music to examine the different ways people conceive the idea of beauty,” said Weber. “What makes the album unique, to some degree, is that I collaborated with musicians from various places: a guitarist from Portugal, a drummer in North Carolina, and two USAO alums, guitarist Cory Moon and drummer James Harper. Using multi-track studio recording software on my computer, I can easily combine their contributions with my keyboard tracks.”

“Beautyquest” is streaming on Spotify, Deezer and Shazaam among others and is available for purchase in iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, GooglePlay and CDBaby.

Weber has toured the world performing his own compositions and major works of the classical repertoire. His compositions have been published by Warner Brothers, Zalo Publishing, Permus Publications and H.W. Gray among others. He earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in fine arts (composition and piano pedagogy) from Texas Tech in 1993.

During his tenure with USAO, Weber has received numerous accolades as an educator, including USAO’s Superior Teaching Award. He has received the USAO Board of Regents Scholarly Activity Award on three occasions and was a finalist for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence’s Medal for Excellence in Teaching and Administration in 2014 and 2017. He was selected as the Oklahoma Federation of Music Clubs’ Musician of the Year in 2003.