Elliott Schwartz
American composer Elliott Schwartz was born in New York City on 19 January 1936. He studied at Columbia University with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson, and privately with Paul Creston.
Distinctive as both composer and academic, from 1964 until 2007 he taught at Bowdoin College, including twelve years as department chair.
He held visiting residencies and fellowships at Trinity College of Music in London, at the University of California (Santa Barbara and San Diego), Ohio State University and at Robinson College, Cambridge.
His music was performed by the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Houston and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Kreutzer and Borromeo Quartets, and at the Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space and the MOMA Summer Garden in New York City, at Tanglewood, the Bath Festival, Leningrad Spring, Gaudeamus Music Week and at the European Youth Orchestra Festival in Denmark.
Recordings of his music can be heard on the New World, CRI, Capstone, Innova, Albany and GM labels.
In addition to composing, Schwartz also wrote a number of books, critical essays and reviews. His books include Electronic Music: A Listener's Guide, Music Since 1945 co-authored with Daniel Godfrey, and the anthology Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, co-edited with Barney Childs.
In 2006, the Library of Congress acquired his papers as part of their permanent collection.
Elliott Schwartz died on 7 December 2016 in Brunswick, aged eighty.
A selection of articles about Elliott Schwartz
CD Spotlight. An ebullient personality - Five orchestral works by Elliott Schwartz, reviewed by Patric Standford. '... fertile imagination and bright spirit.'
CD Spotlight. Style-modulation - A new British CD of American string quartets, reviewed by Peter Dickinson. '... this performance is superb advocacy.'