Elaine Barkin

Elaine Barkin née Radoff (b. 15 December 1932) is an American composer, writer, and educator.

Elaine Radoff was born in The Bronx, New York City, lived in the Amalgamated Houses, attended Bronx High School of Science, Third Street Music School Settlement, and Queens College (BA in 1954), where she studied composition and theory with Karol Rathaus, Sol Berkowitz, Leo Kraft, and Saul Novack. At Brandeis University (MFA in 1956, PhD in 1971), her mentors in composition and theory were Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Arthur Berger, and Seymour Shifrin. Summer 1955, she worked with Boris Blacher at Tanglewood and then at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, 1956–57 on a Fulbright fellowship.

In 1963, Barkin was asked by Benjamin Boretz, founding editor of the composers' journal Perspectives of New Music, to join in as an editorial assistant. It was, for her, akin to a pre- and post-doc experience, a university without walls, a way back into music-intellectual life. In 1972 she served as co-editor and when John Rahn became editor in 1984, she remained on for a year as advisory editor.

Barkin taught music appreciation, music theory, and composition at Queens College (1964–69), the University of Michigan (1970–74), Princeton University (Spring 1974, Council of the Humanities Fellowship), and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1974–97. She also taught at Sarah Lawrence College (1969); National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (May 1989); Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand (Spring 1994); and the Institute for Shipboard Education's Semester at Sea (Fall 1996). Barkin's compositional output includes works for: solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra; 4-track tape collages; solo voice and chorus; Balinese and Javanese gamelan; dancers and multi-media theater, including a chamber opera; graphic scores and scenarios for improvisation; symphonic wind ensemble; electronic-midi media. (See below for list of works.)

...
Wikipedia