Blumenfeld, Harold
- Richard S. James
- , revised by Anders Tobiason
Extract
(b Seattle, WA, Oct 15, 1923).
American composer and conductor. He was educated at the Eastman School (1941–3), Yale University (BM 1948, MM 1949), and the University of Zurich (1948); his principal teachers in composition were Bernard Rogers and paul Hindemith. During several summers at the Berkshire Music Center (1949–52), he trained as a conductor with Robert Shaw and Leonard Bernstein and worked as stage director for Boris Goldovsky. Blumenfeld has held academic positions at Queens College, CUNY (1971–2) and Washington University, St. Louis (1950–89), where he was appointed professor emeritus upon his retirement. He has received awards from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund (1975), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1977), and the NEA (1980), as well as a Missouri Composer Commission. During the 1960s, Blumenfeld devoted a major share of his energies to directing opera in St. Louis, where he campaigned for adequate production standards and cooperation within the local community. As director of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (...
