Stephen Joel Albert (6 February 1941 – 27 December 1992) was an American composer. He is best known for his Symphony No. 1, RiverRun (1983), written for the National Symphony Orchestra which won a Pulitzer Prize for Music. Additionally, he posthumously won a Grammy Award in 1995 in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition category for his Cello Concerto (1990) written for Yo-Yo Ma and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with conductor David Zinman.

He died suddenly in a 1992 automobile accident, having nearly completed his Second Symphony. The work was subsequently completed by Sebastian Currier, and his death sparked musical tributes from composer colleagues such as Aaron Jay Kernis and Christopher Rouse.

In 1965 he won the Rome Prize Fellowship to work independently at the American Academy in Rome.  It was there that his interest in collecting antiquities grew. Living and working alongside the vestiges of the Ancient Roman Empire and guided by his friends and fellow artists—sculptors Paul Suttman and John Pappas—Stephen Albert would go on to form a sizable collection of objects from the Ancient Mediterranean World over the next three decades.

Provenance:
Stephen Joel Albert (6 February 1941–27 December 1992), New York; thence by descent. [Inv. no. 5432]