Arthur Roland Frackenpohl (23 April 1924 – 8 June 2019) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and Professor Emeritus at the

Crane School of Music The Crane School of Music is located in Potsdam, New York, and is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam. Crane consists of approximately 630 undergraduate and 30 graduate students and a faculty o ...

at the

State University of New York at Potsdam The State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam or, colloquially, Potsdam) is a public college in Potsdam, New York. It is the northernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Founded in 1816, it is among the ...

. Frackenpohl was born in New Jersey. He held degrees from the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...

(BA, MA) and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

(DM). In 1942, he was initiated into the Alpha Zeta Chapter of

Theta Chi Fraternity Theta Chi () is an international college fraternity. It was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University then-located in Norwich, Vermont, and has initiated more than 200,000 members and currently has over 8,700 collegiate members across Nort ...

at the University of Rochester. He studied composition at

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the T ...

in 1948 with

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

and with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...

in 1950, where he was awarded the First Prize in Composition. In 1949, Frackenpohl joined the faculty of the

at the

. From 1961 until his retirement, he served there as Professor of Music and Coordinator of Keyboard Courses, receiving the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1982. Frackenpohl has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships for composition over the years, including one from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

in 1959-60 to serve as composer-in-residence for the Hempstead (NY) Public Schools. He has published over 250 instrumental and choral compositions and arrangements, various recordings and one textbook, ''Harmonization at the Piano'', which is used in several college-level keyboard classes in the United States.

References

External links

Allmusic on Arthur Frackenpohl
20th-century classical composers Eastman School of Music alumni State University of New York at Potsdam faculty 2019 deaths 1924 births American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians American expatriates in Canada {{US-composer-20thC-stub