Announcements: Community News

Adrienne Fried Block (1921-2009)

    Adrienne Fried Block passed away on April 6, 2009, at her home in New York with her family around.
Adrienne was a vital, central member of our community for so long that it is hard to imagine it without her. She was one of the first and most distinguished graduates of our doctoral program in musicology, with a 1978 dissertation on "Pierre Segernt’s Les Grans Noelz ca 1537 and the early French Parody Noel." She was an early and fierce advocate for gender equity in the field, for scholarly attention to music written by women, and for feminist approaches to musical scholarship. Her splendid biography of Amy Beach (Oxford University Press, 1998) won numerous awards and widespread recognition for its significance, originality, methodological richness, and written quality. More recently, Adrienne turned her attention to musical life in New York in the nineteenth century, both as co-director of the Music in Gotham project and as author of scholarly papers and presentations, including some she was working on right through her final illness.
      Beyond her significant professional and scholarly achievements, Adrienne was an invaluable colleague and mentor to generations of students and faculty at the Graduate Center. We learned to turn to her for a sympathetic ear (there was no subject in which she was uninterested), some judicious criticism, and a welcome dose of common sense. She was a lively, delightful companion and friend, and we will miss her deeply.
       Donations in her memory can me made to:

Adrienne Fried Block Fellowship
Society for American Music
Stephen Foster Memorial
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

This is a fellowship to support scholars in the field of American urban musical studies.


George Perle (1915-2009) Famous composer, music theorist, and CUNY emeritus professor George Perle passed away on 23 January 2009. The following is excerpted from his website, http://www.georgeperle.net/index.html .

"The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and an array of other major awards and honors, George Perle occupies a commanding position among American composers of our time. Born in Bayonne, NJ, May 6, 1915, he received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation from DePaul University, where he studied composition with Wesley LaViolette, and subsequent private studies with Ernst Krenek, Perle served in the US Army during World War II. After the War, he took post-graduate work in musicology at New York University. His PhD thesis became his first book, Serial Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition.. . . Though Perle is above all a composer, the breadth of his musical interests has led to significant contributions in theory and musicology as well. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and seven books, including the award-winning Operas of Alban Berg. He has been a guest professor at major universities and a much sought after lecturer and commentator on TV, here and abroad."

If you have any other news or announcements that you would like to see posted on this page, please contact Prof. Poundie Burstein. 

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