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FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC DIES AT AGE 69 Just last semester, Milburn returned to Rice University for the faculty music ensemble Syzygy concert that featured his work “Entre Nous.”It was commissioned for the Kandinsky Trio by the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association and was a featured work at the annual PMTA State Conference Concert in November 2002. “We will sincerely miss Ellsworth,” said Robert Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School of Music. “He was a dear man who made so many contributions to this school and the field of music composition.” Milburn began playing the piano when he was 7, and five years later became interested in composing when he began to improvise accompaniments within popular sheet music. As a composer, Milburn received four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and commissions or performances from the Houston Symphony, the Concord and Lark string quartets and the Da Camera Society. “Ellsworth’s music is so vital, virile and strong. I broke a cello bow playing ‘Character Pieces,’” said Norman Fischer, professor of cello. “To have worked with him professionally through the years and then have many more as a faculty colleague here at Rice was so meaningful to me. I miss him.” Before joining Rice University, Milburn performed as the piano accompanist for the renowned improvisational comedy group Second City. When the Second City company branched off to form a San Francisco-based improvisational troupe called the Committee, Milburn became the music director for the group and a permanent member of the company. Milburn performed with the acclaimed comedy group for five years, before joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati. There he worked with Anne Schnoebelen, the Joseph and Ida Kirkland Mullen Professor Emerita of Music, and the late Paul Cooper, who recruited Milburn to come to Rice to help get the Shepherd School up and running. ELLSWORTH MILBURN  Critics have described his music as craggy, colorful, romantic, aggressive, searing, sweetly poignant, overwhelming, thrilling, powerful, wickedly funny, eloquent, brilliant, raging and engaging. Milburn, who served as professor of composition and theory, retired in the fall of 1999 after being a faculty member of the Shepherd School since it officially opened in 1975. He was chair of the department of composition and theory for more than half of his time at Rice.Arthur Gottschalk describes Milburn as "undoubtedly one of the strongest and most versatile musicians I have known. His string quartets are among the finest in contemporary literature." Milburn's approach to music, Gottschalk says, is "risky and yet always with good sense of proportion, perspective and humor." And, says Gottschalk, "he is an inspiration to younger faculty who he has always supported and his students, who are numerous and successful." Says Richard Lavenda: "It's hard to imagine the Shepherd School without Ellsworth Milburn. It isn't only that he's been here since the school opened, but that he's been such an important person in it. I consider him to be one of the finest composers in the country. He's also a great teacher, a sensitive musician and a fair and generous person." Milburn began playing piano at age 7 and became interested in composing at age 12 or so when he was playing popular sheet music and realized that he could improvise an accompaniment that he believed to be better than what was printed on the sheet music. In high school he played in jazz groups and continued to do so as an undergraduate at UCLA. In '61, the renowned improvisational comedy group Second City came to Los Angeles to perform for three months, and Milburn was hired as their piano accompanist. When the Second City company branched off to form a San Francisco-based improvisational troupe called the Committee, Milburn became one of its permanent members. He performed with the acclaimed comedy group from '63 to '68. Celebrities such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Bill Cosby and Lenny Bruce would drop in to see the satirical show. In one skit, Milburn narrated and conducted a parody of a Leonard Bernstein children's concert. His stint with the Committee, Milburn says, was a wonderful experience that helped him significantly as a composer, because by working with an improvisational group he learned a great deal about timing and pacing. When he came to Rice in '75, he was following two of his University of Cincinnati faculty colleagues, the late Paul Cooper and Anne Schnoebelen, the Joseph and Ida Kirkland Mullen Professor of Music, who had both arrived in '74 to help get the Shepherd School up and running. As a composer, Milburn has received four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and commissions or performances from the Houston Symphony, the Concord and Lark string quartets and the Da Camera Society. |
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