Imbrie, Andrew, 1921-2007

American composer and educator. Studied with Roger Sessions at Princeton (BA 1942), and Berkeley (MA 1947). He was a fellow at the American Academy of Rome (1947-9). He taught at UC Berkeley from 1949 until his retirement in 1991. He won many awards, including Guggenheim Fellowship (1953-54, and 1960-61), Alice M. Ditson Fellowship (1946-7), and Naumburg Recording Award (1960). He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1980 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received numerous commissions. In 1991, before his retirement, he was named the prestigious Faculty Research lecturer.

Biography

Andrew Welsh Imbrie (b. New York, April 6, 1921). Composer. He began piano studies at the age of four with Ann Abajian, and continued with Pauline and Leo Ornstein. At Princeton (BA 1942), he studied composition with Roger Sessions. After serving in the U.S. Army (1942-6), he followed Sessions to Berkeley, where he received an M.A. in 1947 and the same year was appointed an instructor. He postponed his teaching career to accept a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (1947-9), to which he later returned as composer-in-residence. At Berkeley, Imbrie was rapidly promoted, becoming professor of music in 1960, and in the course of his long association with the University he has acquired the reputation of a distinguished teacher; his pupils have included Larry Austin and David Del Tredici. In 1970 he was also named chairman of the composition department at the San Francisco Conservatory, and in 1982 Jacob Ziskind Visiting Professor of Music at Brandeis University. He has contributed articles to Perspectives of New Music and other periodicals. Imbrie has received many awards, including the Alice M. Ditson Fellowship (1946-7), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1953-4, and 1960-61), a Brandeis University Creative Arts Award (1958), and a Naumburg Recording Award (1960). In 1969 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and in 1980 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received commissions from the Naumburg Foundation (for Three Campion Songs ), California State University, Hayward (A Song for St. Cecilia Day), the San Francisco Opera (Angle of Repose) and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Requiem: In Memoriam John H. Imbrie 1962-1981). [From The New Grove Dictionary of American Music ].

Professor Imbrie retired from the University of California, Berkeley in Spring, 1991. He was named the Faculty Research Lecturer the same year, a prestigious campus-wide award.