Theodore Strongin (December 10, 1918 – November 24, 1998) was an American

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

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 ...

, flautist, and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Life and career

Born in New York City, Strongin grew up in Darien, Connecticut. He studied both music and biology at Harvard University and Bard College. He specialized in the field of entomology and after graduating from college worked for the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

where he identified multiple species of rare beetles. From 1942 to 1946 he served in the United States Army. After the end of World War II he pursued studies in the flute and music composition at the Juilliard School and the

Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (also known as GSAS) is the graduate school of Columbia University. Founded in 1880, GSAS is responsible for most of Columbia's graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural scie ...

. During his time at Columbia in the 1950s, several of his compositions were premiered in New York, including his ''Suite for Unaccompanied Cello'' and an ''Oboe Quintet''. From 1963 to 1972 he wrote music criticism for '' The New York Times'' where he was a champion of new music. He died of leukemia at St. Joseph's Hospital in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

in 1998 at the age of 79.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strongin, Theodore 1918 births 1998 deaths American male composers American entomologists American music critics Bard College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni Juilliard School alumni Critics employed by The New York Times 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American composers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male musicians United States Army personnel of World War II