The Music Department of the University at Buffalo truly began to flourish in the late 1950s and early 1960s. With the establishment of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1964, the Music Department became a major international location for t he performance and composition of new music. The Center awarded positions to musicians to come to Buffalo and become Creative Associates of the Center. The Center, including participation by the Creative Associates, Univeristy at Buffalo Music Department faculty, and the many visiting musicians who came to Buffalo, was chiefly responsible for Buffalo's reputation during the 1960s and 1970s for being very hospitable to whatever was new in the arts.
The Department also benefited from two projects funded by local businessman and amateur musician, Frederick Slee: the Slee Beethoven String Quartet Cycle series and the Slee Visiting Professors in Music Theory and Composition. The performances of the B eethoven quartet cycle began in 1955 with performances by the Budapest Quartet and continues to this day. The Slee Professorship attracted several of the most noted composers of the period, including Aaron Copland, Carlos Chavez, David Diamond, Leo Smit, George Rochberg, Ned Rorem, Harrison Birtwistle, Mauricio Kagel, Henri Pousseur, Morton Feldman, Leon Kirchner, and Lejaren Hiller.
| January 2005 Music Library Staff musique@acsu.buffalo.edu http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/music/spcoll/musicdept/photographs/bio.html |
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