FAREWELL TO…
George CrumbBorn 1929 Composer
rumb’s gentle, even shy, exterior belied his tenacity as a composer. His adventures in music really were just that, as Crumb revealed himself to be one of American music’s great experimenters. Works such as , and the series pushed the envelope in terms of the sounds musicians were permitted to make on the concert stage. Born in West Virginia into a musical family – both parents were musicians – Crumb latched onto composing as a teenager and studied at Charleston’s St Mason College, among other institutions. He found himself studying with Boris Blacher in Berlin thanks to a scholarship and returned to the US primed to take on his other great love, teaching. His longest tenure was at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught for over three decades. Students nurtured by him include composers Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Rouse and Osvaldo Golijov. He composed right till the end, putting the finishing touches to his final work in 2021.
