Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1906 December 23 | Born in Wells, Minnesota |
| 1918 | The Finney family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota Began cello studies with Eggelbert Roentgen and composition studies with Donald Ferguson |
| 1924-1925 | Attended the University of Minnesota |
| 1925-1927 | Attended Carleton College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree |
| 1927-1928 | Studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris through a Johnson Fellowship |
| 1928-1929 | Attended Harvard University and studied with Edward Burlingame Hill |
| 1929 | Joined the faculty of Smith College |
| 1930 September 3 | Married Gretchen Ludke |
| 1931-1932 | Studied composition with Alban Berg |
| 1935 | Studied composition with Roger Sessions |
| 1936 November 4 | Composers' Forum concert of Finney works sponsored by the Works Progress Administration |
| 1937 | Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition Awarded Pulitzer Prize in Music for First String Quartet |
| 1938 | Composed Bleheris while in Europe on the Guggenheim Fellowship |
| 1940-1944 | Taught at Mt. Holyoke College and the Hartt School of Music |
| 1944-1945 | Served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, received a Purple Heart, and awarded the Certificate of Merit |
| 1947 | Awarded second Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition |
| 1947 | Appointed Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Michigan |
| 1955 | Received the Boston Symphony Award |
| 1956 | Received award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters |
| 1957 | Awarded honorary doctorate of humane letters by Carleton College Awarded honorary membership to Phi Beta Kappa |
| 1958 June 1 | Premiere of Fantasy in Two Movements by Yehudi Menuhin as a commission for the Brussels World's Fair |
| 1959 October 30 | Premiere of String Quintet by the Kroll Quartet and Alan Shulman as a commission from the Library of Congress Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation |
| 1959 November 13 | Premiere of Symphony no. 2 by the Philadelphia Orchestra as a commission from the Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation |
| 1960 | Served as Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome |
| 1960-1961 | Participated as a Traveling Scholar for Phi Beta Kappa |
| 1962 | Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters Worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Laboratory under the direction of Mario Davidovsky |
| circa 1962 | Earthrise trilogy commissioned by the University of Michigan; included Still Are New Worlds (1962), The Martyr's Elegy (1966), and Earthrise (1978) |
| 1963 | Symphony no. 2 used to represent the United States at the Rostrum of International Composers at UNESCO in Paris |
| 1965 August | Composer-in-Residence at the Congregation of the Arts at Dartmouth College Premiere of The Nun's Priest's Tale |
| 1967 | Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters |
| 1968 | Awarded the Brandeis Creative Arts Award and Medal |
| 1973 | Retired from the University of Michigan and awarded Emeritus status |
| 1977-1978 | Participated as a Traveling Scholar for Phi Beta Kappa |
| 1997 February 4 | Died in Carmel, California |