 After graduating from Alexander Ramsey High School in Roseville, MN, he attended the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Paul Fetler and eventually earned a Ph.D. in composition in 1978.By 1983, he was named the Composer-in-Residence at the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1988 he was also named to the same post at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, whose then-conductor Robert Shaw commissioned numerous choral works from Paulus for Shaw's eponymous vocal ensemble.After the premiere of his second opera, "The Postman Always Rings Twice", he began a fruitful collaboration with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis that would result in four more operas.