Elinor Armer facts for kids

Elinor Armer (born October 6, 1939) is an American pianist, music educator, and composer. She is known for her beautiful music and for teaching many students about composition. She has traveled around the world sharing her love for music.

Her Early Life and Musical Start

Elinor Armer was born in Oakland, California. When she was just two months old, her family moved to Davis, California. This is where she spent most of her childhood. Her father was an engineer who worked for the university in Davis. He was also an acoustical engineer, which means he studied sound. He often set up speakers in their living room. This helped Elinor learn about sound from a very young age.

Elinor's family had many hymnals, which are books of church songs. Because of her father's background, Elinor started reading music and enjoying four-part harmony early on. She comes from a family of artists in California. Her grandfather was a commercial artist, and her grandmother was an author. Her mother was also a writer who loved to sing and play the piano. Elinor shared her love for the piano with her mother. They often sang and played music together when Elinor was growing up. Elinor began playing the piano when she was eight years old.

Even though her mother played the piano, Elinor learned from a neighbor named Fritz Berens. He was a piano teacher. Her first lessons focused on ear training and dictation. This means she learned to recognize and write down music just by listening to it. These early lessons helped her love music even more and inspired her to become a composer later in life.

Elinor says that many things influenced her music. These included playing in a rhythm band in kindergarten. The radio and the records her family played at home also helped shape her musical journey.

Education and Musical Journey

Elinor graduated from Davis High School in 1957. Later, she was even added to the Davis Senior High School Hall of Fame! After high school, she went to Mills College. She tried different subjects before deciding to major in music composition. Her piano teacher, Alexander Libermann, greatly influenced her decision to pursue piano. Libermann was a very popular professor. He gave many lectures about how to practice, play, and teach the piano.

Elinor graduated from Mills College in 1961. She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She then earned her Master of Arts degree in composition from California State University, San Francisco, in 1972. During her studies, she learned from famous composers like Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner. She also studied piano with Alexander Libermann.

A Career in Music

Elinor Armer has performed her music all over the United States and in other countries. Her music includes many different styles, from orchestral pieces played by a whole orchestra to solo pieces for one instrument. Much of her music, like "Promptu" and "Etude Quasi Cadenza," was written for the pianist Lois Brandwynee.

Elinor Armer is very well-known for her work in music education. She is connected with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1985, she started the Composition Department there. This department helps students learn how to write their own music. Besides teaching at the Conservatory, Elinor also teaches piano, composition, music history, and music theory from her home studio in Berkeley, California. She has performed and given lectures across the United States. She also helped start an organization called Composers, Inc. Her important papers are kept at the UC Berkeley Music Library.

Awards and Recognitions

Elinor Armer has received several awards and honors for her contributions to music:

• The Norman Fromm Composer's Award
• Fellowships from places like the MacDowell Colony, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, and Yaddo. These fellowships allow artists to work on their projects.
• The Gerbode Foundation New Music Composition Award in 1991.

Her Musical Works and Books

Elinor Armer worked with the author Ursula K. Le Guin to create a multi-part fantasy series called Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts. This series has been recorded and shared with many listeners.

While she was a student at Mills College, Elinor would record and write down the lectures given by her professor, Alexander Libermann. After he passed away, Elinor and a team of others put these lectures together. They published them in a book called “A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano.” This book helps others learn about playing the piano.

Discography

A discography is a list of recordings. Here are some of the albums featuring Elinor Armer's music or performances:

• Music of Darius Milhaud (2004) – An audio CD featuring Elinor Armer and others.
• Armer: Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts/Falletta (1995) – A two-CD set featuring Elinor Armer's music, performed by JoAnn Falletta, the Women's Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Girl's Chorus.
• Sonata for Cello and Piano, Opus 11, Works for Cello and Piano (2000) – An audio CD featuring Elinor Armer and other composers.