George Crumb: An Overview
George Henry Crumb Jr. (October 24, 1929 – February 6, 2022) was a pioneering American composer renowned for his avant-garde approach to contemporary classical music. Crumb’s work stands out for its exploration of unusual timbres, inventive forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques, resulting in music with vivid, often haunting sonorities. Born in Charleston, West Virginia, Crumb studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin on a Fulbright Scholarship between his master's and doctorate. His principal teacher in composition at Michigan was Ross Lee Finney. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, he taught at a college in Virginia and then at the University of Colorado in 1958.