George Crumb (1929 - present)

Introduction
George Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia on October 24th, 1929. He received his bachelors degree in music at the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts in 1950. He got his masters in music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1952, and then studied as a Fullbright fellow at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He then returned to America and recieved his D.M.A at the University of Michigan in 1959.

He was a professor of piano and composition at a Virginia college, and later a professor of piano and composition at the University of Colorado in 1958. After, he became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania until his retirement in 1997. He continued to compose at Arizona State University with a joint residency with David Burge.

Dream Images (1976)
Dream Images was initially written in 1976 and can be played by either violin, cello, piano, or percussion. It was performed by solo pianist Anne Condamin on June 2nd, 2017 at the Alba Music Festival In Alba, Italy. It was very avant-garde modern, using unusual tones and tempos to achieve a space-y affect.

Observations
Crumb is described as an avant-garde American composer, with his style falling between neoclassicism and radical avante-garde. His music is distinguishable by unusual timbres, different forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques.

Awards and Honors
Crumb received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1968 for his orchestral work Echoes of Time and the River.

He also received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition in 2000 for his work Star-Child.