Dawn honors Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School, who was killed in 2012.
On April 20, Paul Frucht (BM ’11, Music Theory and Composition: Concert Music), music adjunct faculty at NYU Steinhardt, had his Carnegie Hall debut when the MET Opera Chamber Ensemble performed his work Dawn, a deeply personal composition that reflects remembrance and resilience.
Composed in 2013, Dawn honors Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School, who was tragically killed during a shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut, school in 2012. Frucht had known Hochsprung years earlier, when he was a student and she was assistant principal at Rogers Park Middle School in nearby Danbury.
“I really loved middle school, and Dawn was a big presence at my school,” says Frucht, who went on to complete both master’s and doctoral degrees in music at The Juilliard School after graduating from NYU Steinhardt. “The school had an incredibly welcoming vibe, and a lot of that had to do with her warm and steady charisma.”
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Frucht returned home and attended a memorial service for Hochsprung, waiting for seven hours alongside former classmates, teachers, and community members to pay their respects. The experience left a lasting impression, and soon after, Frucht felt compelled to respond in the way he knew best: by composing.
Written for six musicians, the original chamber version of Dawn premiered at Juilliard while Frucht was a student; Hochsprung’s family attended the performance. Frucht then arranged for a concert at Rogers Park Middle School, bringing the work directly to the community it was meant to honor.
“That experience was defining,” says Frucht. “It showed me that contemporary music can tell the stories of our time in a way that music of the past cannot.”
Since its premiere more than a decade ago, Dawn has been reorchestrated and performed around the United States by the American Composers Orchestra, Eastern Festival Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, and more. For its Carnegie Hall debut, Dawn was reimagined once again.
“I revisited the chamber version, expanding it for 10 musicians—including winds, strings, harp, and percussion—bringing new color and depth to it while preserving its emotional core,” says Frucht.
Frucht’s music has been commissioned and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Neave Trio, and Time For Three, among numerous other performing ensembles and organizations.
This spring, Frucht was awarded an arts fellowship from the state of Connecticut for a new work for the New York City-based Exponential Ensemble for spring 2027. He is also fulfilling commissions for the Sun Valley Music Festival and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: respectively, a double bassist concerto for multiple Grammy- and Emmy-winning performer and composer Ranaan Meyer and a symphonic song cycle based on Martin Goldsmith’s book, The Inextinguishable Symphony.
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