Harold Blumenfeld

Harold Blumenfeld is a composer given to language and the human voice. Born in Seattle, he studied at Yale with Paul Hindemith and also studied at the University of Zurich. He trained with Leonard Bernstein and Boris Goldovsky in conducting and opera stage direction at Tanglewood, and from the 1970s, with awards from the American Academy and the National Endowment for the Arts, he focused on musical composition. Professor Emeritus of Wasington University in St. Louis, MO, he is active in the areas of musicology and criticism. Recent commissions include Monarch Minstrel for men’s chorus, cello, and piano (St. Louis) and Voci Luminose for two violins and orchestra (Umea Symfoni Orkester, Sweden). His most recent works include the two-act opera Borgia Infami, premiered by the New York City Opera in 2003; For Sion - O Thee!, a choral cycle after Byron’s “Hebrew Melodies;” and the song cycles Sterne und Stein (after orientalist Rudolf Gelpke) and Oak, Feather, and Stone – to Friends Passed and Present, written in 2004. His works are published by MMB Music Inc. You can access his American Music Center website via Google by typing “Blumenfeld works new music jukebox”.

Further Information

• 2003-2004 American Composers Update
• 2002-2003 American Composers Update
• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1996-1997 American Composers Update
• SAI's Composers Bureau Online
• Composer's website at Washington University
• Composer's website at Washington University Gaylord Music Library