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(b Elgin, IL, May 25, 1914; d DeKalb, IL, Feb 17, 2003). American music educator, scholar, and administrator. He obtained degrees in instrumental music (BS 1937) and in education and English (MA 1939) from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and in musicology from University of Michigan (PhD 1950). He taught music and English in the public schools of Griffith, Illinois (1938–41), and in the laboratory school at Eastern Illinois State Teachers College (1941–3). After serving in the US Army during World War II (1943–6), he completed his doctoral studies and joined the music faculty at the University of Michigan (1949), where he established a leading doctoral program in music education and directed 51 doctoral dissertations. He served as dean of the School of Music (1969–79) and retired from the faculty in 1984. Britton was president of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) (...

(b Staré Město u Frýdku [now Frýdek-Místek], Moravia, April 12, 1931; d Brno, Dec 16, 2008). Czech musicologist and administrator. He studied musicology under Racek and Štědroň, and aesthetics under Mirko Novák at Brno University (1950–55), graduating in 1955 and taking the doctorate in 1967 with a dissertation on Slavonic elements in Beethoven's works and the CSc in 1968 with a dissertation on Mysliveček. He was awarded the DSc in 1989 for his dissertation on Beethoven's stage works. He was appointed assistant lecturer at Brno University in 1955 but although a highly productive scholar, editor, and administrator (head of musicology department from 1972 to 1989), he was barred, as a non-communist, from promotion until 1984, when he became lecturer. After the Velvet Revolution he was made vice-dean of the Arts Faculty (1989–91) and was appointed professor of musicology in 1990; he continued to teach at Brno University as an ‘external’ lecturer from ...

(b Përmet, Albania, Nov 22, 1963). Albanian composer, ethnomusicologist, and administrator. After early musical training in Përmet and Korça, he studied at the Tirana Conservatory (1984–7), where his teachers included Gaqi, Kushta, Lara, Simoni, and Shupo. Between 1988 and 1991 he worked in Përmet as music director at the Naïm Frashëri Palace of Culture and as artistic director of the Elena Gjika ensemble. He was appointed to teach ethnomusicology and composition at the Tirana Conservatory (now the music faculty of the Academy of Arts) in 1991. In 1993 he founded the New Albanian Music association and in 1997 the Ton de Leeuw International Competition for New Music in Tirana. After receiving the doctorate in ethnomusicology in 1994, he undertook further composition studies with Hufschmidt at the Folkwang Hochschule, Essen (1994–5), followed by postdoctoral studies at Athens University (1996). In 1997 he was appointed director of the Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Tirana, and of the State Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances. He resigned in ...

(b Northwich, Cheshire, May 17, 1912; d York, May 9, 2004). English writer on music and music educationist . He was educated at Christ’s Hospital (1924–30) and read English, music and history as an organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge (1930–34; MusB 1933). He was director of music at Stranmillis Teachers Training College, Belfast, from 1934 until 1937, when he took the MusD at Trinity College, Dublin. From 1937 to 1944 he was music adviser to the city of Stoke on Trent. In 1944 he became director of music at Wolverhampton College of Technology; there he also formed a choir which gave many performances, particularly of lesser-known works by Handel. Since 1970 he has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at numerous colleges in the USA.

Young was an exceptionally fluent and prolific writer. His books include short popular biographies and several volumes for younger readers. Many of his more substantial writings are based on a lively, fresh and industrious, if not always highly discriminating, examination of source material; these include original research on Elgar and useful surveys of the British choral tradition and British music generally. As a composer Young was equally prolific: his works include a Fugal Concerto for two pianos and strings (...