Walberg, Betty, 1921-1990

Musician, composer.

From the description of Reminiscences of Betty Walberg : oral history, 1979. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122608633

Betty Walberg was a composer, arranger and pianist for Broadway, motion picture, ballet, and modern dance choreographers.

She was born on July 11, 1921 in Hebron, Nebraska. A graduate of Bennington College, Walberg often collaborated with modern dancers. She served as a pianist for the first American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in 1948 and for such choreographers as Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Anna Sokolow and Martha Hill. Over the years Walberg taught at many places, including the University of California-Santa Barbara, where she was a lecturer in dance at the time of her death in 1990. Walberg had been the dance arranger for Jerome Robbins on the original productions of Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964) and for both the Broadway and film versions of West Side Story. As company pianist for Ballets: U.S.A., the troupe that Robbins had founded in 1958, she appeared on stage in the New York premiere of the revised version of The Concert, a comic work Robbins originally had choreographed for the New York City Ballet. In the piece, Walberg portrayed a long-suffering pianist who plays a Chopin recital while dancers act out their fantasies. Other Broadway shows for which she was dance arranger include: Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Kelly, and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). Walberg also contributed arrangements to several Fred Astaire television specials.

From the description of Betty Walberg scores, 1964-1971. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 79409333