Life and career of George Crumb
Born on October 24, 1929, Crumb’s father was a clarinetist and bandleader, while his mother was a cellist. He started writing music shortly after he turned 10.
Crumb studied at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan in 1974 and majored in music at the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1950.
He received his M.Mus. in 1952 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained his D.M.A. in 1959 from the University of Michigan.
George was initially a teacher at a college in Virginia. He later became a professor of piano and composition in 1958 at the University of Colorado and started a long association with the University of Pennsylvania in 1958, becoming Annenberg Professor of the Humanities in 1983.
The composer was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1995 and retired from teaching in 1997. He was appointed with David Burge to a joint residency at Arizona State University in 2002 and continued to compose.
The Charleston, West Virginia native was a recipient of several accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1968 for his orchestral work Echoes of Time and the River and a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Contemporary Composition for his work, Star-Child.
Fans pay tribute on Twitter
George Crumb’s style of composing music was the primary reason he was loved by so many. Fans and other popular personalities were shocked to hear about his demise and expressed their grief on Twitter:
George’s son David Crumb has been a composer and an assistant professor at the University of Oregon since 1997. His daughter Ann Crumb was an actress and singer and passed away at her parents’ home on October 31, 2019.
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