Emma Lou Diemer

American composer and organist Emma Lou Diemer was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 24 November 1927.  She studied with Gardner Read while she was still at school, and then at Yale School of Music. Her composition teachers included Howard Hanson, Paul Hindemith, Bernard Rogers, Roger Sessions and Ernst Toch.  

She wrote for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, keyboard and other instruments, voice and for electronic media in styles ranging from tonal and traditional to atonal and experimental, and she collaborated with many musicians including the organist Joan Devee Dixon and the violinist Philip Ficsor, who both commissioned and performed her music.

Emma Lou Diemer died in Santa Barbara, California on 2 June 2024, aged ninety-six.

 

A selection of articles about Emma Lou Diemer

Classical music news - June 2024 Obituaries - Our summary of those the classical music world has lost this month

CD Spotlight. Orchestral Vivacity - Music by Emma Lou Diemer, heard by Patric Standford. '... some undoubted aptitude ...'