Freeman, Robert N.

Biography

Robert N. Freeman was born August 29, 1939 in Vancouver, Canada. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles between 1959 and 1971, during which he traveled to Austria on a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Vienna. His interest in Austria's musical history led to extensive research on the Benedictine abbey at Melk, which houses many Classical music manuscripts.

Freeman began his teaching career at the College of the Canyons in Valencia, California in 1970. From 1971 to 1972, he lectured at CSU Los Angeles, while continuing to teach at the College of the Canyons. In 1974, Freeman was offered an assistant professor position by Karl Geiringer at UC Santa Barbara. He played an important role in the Jazz Ensemble and created a new interdisciplinary course with Wolf Kittler, a professor from the Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies Department. Freeman specialized in eighteenth century music, teaching individual courses on such composers as Haydn, Beethoven and Bach. His notable publications include monographs on the Austrian composer Schneider and music at Melk Abbey, as well as articles on Beethoven and Albrechtsberger. His final project was to edit a collection of essays by Karl Geiringer. Robert Freeman died after a long illness on June 18, 2002.

For more information, see Curriculum Vitae in Research files.

Obituary: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/RobertN.Freeman.htm

From the guide to the Robert N. Freeman Papers, ca. 1978-2000, (University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections)