Elliott Schwartz papers

Elliott Schwartz was born in 1936 in New York City and studied composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University. He held the Robert K. Beckwith Professor of Music at Bowdoin College, where he first taught in 1964, including twelve years as department chair. His teaching was influenced by his unique composing style which included experimental ideas and techniques. He also held extended visiting residencies at the University of California (Santa Barbara and San Diego), The Ohio State University, Trinity College of Music (London, UK) and Cambridge University (UK). Schwartz has served as president of the College Music Society, vice-president of the American Music Center, and national chair of the American Society of University Composers.

Schwartz co-wrote Electronic Music: A Listener’s Guide and co-edited Music Since 1945: Issues, Materials, Literature and Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music. He composed various pieces of music such as “Rainbow” and “Equinox: Concerto for Orchestra” which have been performed by such leading ensembles as the Minnesota Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. His creative works include compositions and scores of arias, concerto, dance suite, music sonatas, and symphonies for oboe, trumpet, cello, flute, viola, piano, and clarinet, among others. Schwartz also composed more alternative performance pieces, including “Elevator Music” that was performed in Bowdoin’s Cole Tower while riding up and down the elevator.

He is the recipient of the Maine State Award in Arts & Humanities (1970), Prize Gaudeamus International Music Week (Netherlands, 1970), composition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1974), and a McKim Fund commission from the Library of Congress. Schwartz left a resounding impact on the Maine music community and often influenced his students in their own composing. He married Dorothy Schwartz, director of the Maine Humanities Council, who died in 2014. Elliot Schwartz died in 2016.