George H. Crumb was one of America’s most inventive, innovative, avant-garde composers.  In an interview with Jessica Kourkounis for the New York Times, he is quoted as saying, “I love sounds that seem to hang in the air and you can’t tell exactly where they’re coming from.” One his best known works is Black Angels (1970) which was written in reaction to the Vietnam War. “It is scored for an amplified string quartet and features techniques such as tapping the strings with thimbles. A mournful fragment from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet is interrupted by fierce bow strokes and human shouts.” (“George Crumb, Eclectic Composer Who Searched for Sounds, Dies at 92”, Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times, Feb. 6, 2022). For some pieces, he even choreographed the lighting and specified what the musicians must wear, i.e, masks. Mr. Crumb “eschewed computer notation and even drew his own staves.” Except for suffering a creative block in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Mr. Crumb continued composing until the end of his life.  His death was announced by Bridge Records, his record label.

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Anne Akiko Meyers
Victoria Bond
Giuliano Carmignola
George Crumb
Misha Dichter
Simone Dinnerstein
Stanley Drucker
JoAnne Falletta
Renée Fleming
Richard Goode
Sean Hickey
Benjamin Hochman
Yo Yo Ma
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Itzhak Perlman
Eve Queler
Philippe Quint
Gerard Schwarz
Peter Serkin
Arnold Steinhardt
Benita Valente
André Watts