Crumb, George

George Crumb (b. Oct. 24, 1929, in Charleston, W.V.) is an American composer.

From the description of George Crumb papers, 1956-2011 (bulk 1965-2003). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 778991658

Composer.

From the description of Autograph note signed, dated : Philadelphia, to George Watras, 1979 Mar. 5. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270911566

American composer.

From the description of "VOX BALAENAE / FOR THREE MASKED PLAYERS / (Electric Flute, Electric Cello, Electric Piano / George Crumb." : autograph manuscript, 1971 June. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270562414

From the description of Adoration of the Magi, from A little suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979, for piano : musical quotation, 1982 Oct. 12. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34364298

Biographical Note

• 1929, October 24: Born, Charleston, West Virginia, to musicians George Henry Crumb, Sr. and Vivian Crumb
• circa 1939: Began composing works "somewhat in the style of Mozart"
• 1944 - 1947 : Attended Charleston High School
• 1948 - 1950 : Studied piano and composition at Mason College of Music, Charleston, W. Va.
• 1949, May 21: Married Elizabeth May Brown
• 1950: Daughter Elizabeth Ann Crumb born
• 1951 - 1952 : Studied composition with Eugene Weigel at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• 1953 - 1959 : Studied composition with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Finney emphasized meticulous notation, a characteristic evident in Crumb's works. At Michigan, he was introduced to and inspired by the poetry of Federico García Lorca, whose texts become the source for many future compositions
• 1955 - 1956 : Studied composition with Boris Blacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik on a Fulbright grant
• 1959: Doctorate, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His dissertational submission, Variazioni, is not premiered until 1965 Taught piano and composition, University of Colorado, Boulder Met pianist David Burge and composed Five Pieces for Piano, a work that earned Crumb widespread praise
• 1962: Son David Reed Crumb born
• 1964 - 1965 : Began residency at the Buffalo Center for the Creative and Performing Arts
• 1965: Moved to Media, Pennsylvania Son Peter Stanley Crumb born Premiere of Madrigals, Books I-II, commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress
• 1965 - 1997 : Professor, composition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn.
• 1967: Composed Echoes of Time and the River
• 1968: Received Pulitzer Prize for Echoes of Time and the River
• 1969, July 16 - 24 : Composed Night of the Four Moons, a work inspired by the Apollo 11 space flight
• 1969: Completed Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death, his first Lorca-inspired work that had been started in 1962
• 1970, Oct. 23: Premiere of Black Angels by the Stanley Quartet at the University of Michigan
• 1970, Oct. 31: Premiere of Ancient Voices of Children at the 14th Coolidge Festival of Chamber Music. The piece was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress
• 1972, Mar. 17: First performance of Vox Balaenae by the New York Camerata at the Library of Congress. The work contained masked performers and other theatrical elements similar to Lux Aeterna, composed the previous year
• 1972 - 1979 : Composed Makrokosmos, a cycle of four works for amplified piano
• 1977, May 5: New York Philharmonic premiere of Star-Child under Pierre Boulez
• 1978: PBS broadcast of Robert Mugge's film, George Crumb: Voice of the Whale
• 1984, June 7: New York Philharmonic premiere of tone-poem A Haunted Landscape under Arthur Wiesberg
• 1986 Apr.: Served as the American representative at the Conference of the Union of Soviet Composers
• 1988, Jan. 17: Zeitgeist is premiered at the Charles Ives Festival in Duisburg, Germany
• 1997: Composed Mundis Canis, a work inspired by the personalities of the Crumb family dogs.
• 1998: Mundis Canis premiered by guitarist David Starobin and Crumb himself on percussion
• 2000: Star-Child, recorded for the first time on Bridge Records' Complete Crumb Edition, won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition
• 2002 - 2007 : Composed the American Songbook, a cycle of six works for voice, percussion quartet, and amplified piano
• 2011, Apr. 28: Thomas Hampson performed selections from the American Songbook at the Library of Congress

From the guide to the George Crumb Papers, 1956-2011, (bulk 1965-2003), (Music Division Library of Congress)

American composer.

From the description of "Music for a Summer Evening.", 1979 Mar. 5. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270919792

Epithet: composer

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000787.0x0000cd