Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1929 October 24 | Born, Charleston, West Virginia, to musicians George Henry Crumb, Sr. and Vivian Crumb |
| circa 1939 | Began composing works "somewhat in the style of Mozart" |
| 1944-1947 | Attended Charleston High School |
| 1947 | Attended Interlochen Arts Camp |
| 1948-1950 | Studied piano and composition at Mason College of Music, Charleston, West Virginia |
| 1949, May 21 | Married Elizabeth May Brown |
| 1950 | Daughter Elizabeth Ann Crumb born |
| 1951-1952 | Studied composition with Eugene Weigel at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 1953-1959 | Studied composition with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Finney emphasized meticulous notation, a characteristic evident in Crumb's works. At Michigan, he was introduced to and inspired by the poetry of Federico García Lorca, whose texts become the source for many future compositions |
| 1955-1956 | Studied composition with Boris Blacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik on a Fulbright grant |
| 1959 | Doctorate, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His dissertational submission, Variazioni, was not premiered until 1965 Taught piano and composition, University of Colorado, Boulder Met pianist David Burge and composed Five Pieces for Piano, a work that earned Crumb widespread praise |
| 1962 | Son David Reed Crumb born |
| 1964-1965 | Residency at the Buffalo Center for the Creative and Performing Arts |
| 1965 | Moved to Media, Pennsylvania Son Peter Stanley Crumb born Premiere of Madrigals, Books I-II, commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress |
| 1965-1997 | Professor, composition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia |
| 1967 | Composed Echoes of Time and the River Awarded first Guggenheim Fellowship |
| 1968 | Received Pulitzer Prize for Echoes of Time and the River |
| 1969 July 16-24 | Composed Night of the Four Moons, a work inspired by the Apollo 11 space flight |
| 1969 | Completed Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death, his first Lorca-inspired work that had been started in 1962 |
| 1970 October 23 | Premiere of Black Angels by the Stanley Quartet at the University of Michigan |
| 1970 October 31 | Premiere of Ancient Voices of Children at the 14th Coolidge Festival of Chamber Music. The piece was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress |
| 1972 March 17 | First performance of Vox Balaenae by the New York Camerata at the Library of Congress. The work contained masked performers and other theatrical elements similar to Lux Aeterna, composed the previous year |
| 1972-1979 | Composed Makrokosmos, a cycle of four works for amplified piano |
| 1973 | Awarded second Guggenheim Fellowship |
| 1977 May 5 | New York Philharmonic premiere of Star-Child under Pierre Boulez |
| 1978 | PBS broadcast of Robert Mugge's film, George Crumb: Voice of the Whale |
| 1984, June 7 | New York Philharmonic premiere of tone-poem A Haunted Landscape under Arthur Wiesberg |
| 1986 April | Served as the American representative at the Conference of the Union of Soviet Composers |
| 1988 January 17 | Zeitgeist is premiered at the Charles Ives Festival in Duisburg, Germany |
| 1997 | Composed Mundis Canis, a work inspired by the personalities of the Crumb family dogs. Retired from the University of Pennsylvania |
| 1998 | Mundis Canis premiered by guitarist David Starobin and Crumb himself on percussion |
| 2000 | Star-Child, recorded for the first time on Bridge Records' Complete Crumb Edition, won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (2001) |
| 2002-2007 | Composed the American Songbook, a cycle of six works for voice, percussion quartet, and amplified piano |
| 2007 | Inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame |
| 2010 | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for The Winds of Destiny |
| 2011 April 28 | Thomas Hampson performed selections from the American Songbook at the Library of Congress |
| 2011 June 10 | Peter Sellars staged a theater production of "Winds of Time" from American Songbook IV (2004) featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw at the Ojai Music Festival |
| 2012 | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for The Ghosts of Alhambra Composed The Yellow Moon of Andalusia (Spanish Songbook III) for mezzo soprano and amplified piano |
| 2015-2017 | Composed Metamorphoses (Book I) for amplified piano |
| 2017 May 7 | Margaret Leng Tan premiered Metamorphoses (Book I) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC |
| 2018-2020 | Composed Metamorphoses (Book II) for amplified piano |
| 2019 | Composed Kronos-Kryptos, Four Tableaux, for percussion quartet Suffered a stroke University of Pennsylvania hosted “Zeitgeist: George Crumb at 90,” a showcase of Crumb's music on October 10 Daughter, Ann Crumb, died of cancer on October 31 |
| 2020 December 14 | Marcantonio Barone premiered Metamorphoses (Book II) in Philadelphia |
| 2022 February 6 | Died at home in Media, Pennsylvania. Survived by wife, Elizabeth, and sons David and Peter |