Mennin, Peter
The career of Peter Mennin (1923-1983) has been closely bound up with most of the nation’s leading music schools. From 1940 to 1942, he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. After serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, he resumed his work in music at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where his composition teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers, and where he earned both Master’s and Doctor’s degrees. He also studied conducting with Serge Koussevitsky at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. From 1947 to 1958 Mennin was on the faculty of The Julliard School of Music in New York. He left that institution to assume the directorship of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, but returned to Julliard in 1963 as its President. Mennin’s compositions, many of which have been performed throughout the world, include seven symphonies and a number of other works for orchestra, chamber orchestra and string orchestra; concertos for cello and for piano; music for band; choral works, large and small; chamber music; and piano pieces. Many of his works have been commissioned by leading musical organizations of this country, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards, grants and citations.
