Graduated Lake Forest College (1968) — Phi Beta Kappa

Through many different ventures and artistic pursuits, Paul Joe Vest was a communicator. He worked in the educational filmstrip business in Chicago for a number of years before joining Centre Productions, a film and video company in Boulder, Colorado in 1979. Later he became president of Clearview, a company that produces educational materials, including videos, for which he often composed the scores. In the Chicago area, where he attended college and lived for a period, he was a founding member of the Lesbian and Gay Progressive Democratic Organization and the Buddhist Shambhala Center.

Vest's compositions include one ballet, but he is best remembered for his powerful Requiem, a piece for vocal quartet, chorus and orchestra, which draws on the poetry of Walt Whitman. Vest is profiled in Song of the Open Road: A New Video about Music, AIDS, Poetry, Death and Life. The production chronicles the composition and premiere of Requiem in 1990, and shows Vest in discussion with friends including the poet Alan Ginsberg, who reads Whitman's "Good-bye My Fancy" over the closing credits. Requiem received four subsequent performances.

"When I learned I had AIDS, I felt anger and blame. I went into a deep depression," Vest told the Chicago Tribune prior to a performance of Requiem in Lake Forest only a few weeks before he died. "I picked up Whitman's Song of the Open Road. It lifted me from that depression. I decided I should enjoy what life I had left. I wanted to share his words that inspired me with other people."

Vest also edited a volume of Whitman's poetry, The Open Road: Walt Whitman on Death & Dying, which was published in 1996.

Paul Joe Vest died of AIDS in Boulder, Colorado at the age of 49 on April 20, 1994.

—Joseph Dalton

WORKS:

Dream Forest
Score for an educational video for young children, released in 1985.

Requiem
Dedicated to those who have died and those who are living with AIDS
for: SATB soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra
date: 1990
text: based on texts by Walt Whitman
    1. Song of the Open Road
    2. Kyrie — To You
    3. Of The Terrible Death of Appearances
    4. Whispers of Heavenly Death
    5. To Think of Time
    6. The Last Invocation
    7. The Carol to Death
    8. Out of the Rolling Ocean The Crowd
    9. The Mystic Trumpeter
premiere: David Lockington, conductor, Eric Brunner, choral director, First United Methodist Church, Boulder, CO 1990
other performances: Adams State College, Alamose, CO; Lake Forest College Singers and Chamber Orchestra with the North Suburban Symphony, First Presbyterian Church, Lake Forest, IL 2/27/94, as a benefit for Chicago AIDS Foundation; San Francisco, CA; Lawrence, KS
recorded: premiere performance conducted by David Lockington, Eric Brunner, choral director, Chariot Productions cassette (1990). Available with the video Song of the Open Road.

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Vanity Slasher, a musical comedy with lyrics by William Haugse.

WRITINGS:
The Open Road: Walt Whitman on Death & Dying by Walt Whitman, ed. by Paul Joe Vest, Four Corners Editions (May 1996). ISBN: 0963650149. Inspired by the Requiem of the same name, the book includes a preface by Jan Vest and an essay on Whitman by Allen Ginsberg.

DISCOGRAPHY:
Requiem, David Lockington, conductor, Eric Brunner, choral director, First United Methodist Church, Boulder, CO. Recording of 1990 premiere performance, Chariot Productions (cassette).

VIDEOGRAPHY:

Song of the Open Road: A New Video about Music, AIDS, Poetry, Death and Life. The video chronicles the composition and premiere in 1990 of Requiem, and shows Vest in discussion with friends including the poet Alan Ginsberg, who reads Whitman's "Good-bye My Fancy" over the closing credits.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• "Paul Joe Vest Wants His Requiem To Be Life-Affirming" by John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, February 17, 1994.
• "An Inspirational Requiem" by Jodi Jacobs, Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1994.
• Obituary, Chicago Tribune, April 25, 1994.
• "The Open Road: Walt Whitman on Death & Dying" (book review) by Jan Maxwell Avent, Knoxville News-Sentinel, June 16, 1996.

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
Unknown

RESOURCES:
Chariot Distribution
1274 Lambert Circle
Lafayette, CO 80026
Tel: (303) 666-4558 or (866) 243-6414
Fax: (303) 666-5808
info@chariotdist.com

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
None

OTHER CONTACTS:
Victress Hitchcock (friend)
victressh@aol.com