Michael White (1931-2022)
Composer-in-Residence; Seminar Lecturer
IN REMEMBRANCE
Michael was a champion of music: a beloved teacher, musician, and composer. He wrote many pieces inspired by and for Wintergreen Festival Artists – often performed on the mountaintop during our summer Festivals. Michael impacted Wintergreen Music more than we can say. He shaped our history, our community, and indeed our mission of inspiring, welcoming, and educating audiences, students, and musicians alike through the transformative power of music.
If you have memories, stories, or images of Michael you would like to share with the community, please email info@wintergreenmusic.org.
Artistic Director Erin Freeman reflects on Michael’s time with Wintergreen Music below:
“From the first time I visited Wintergreen Music, I sensed that the audience was one of the most intellectually and musically curious audiences around. Patrons flocked to pre-concert lectures, read program notes diligently, and asked interesting questions about the composers and the music – even down to nerdy musicological details like the “circle of fifths” and “the golden mean”. Never before had I experienced concert-goers as connected to the inner workings of the music as at Wintergreen. It was not long before I understood why: Michael White. Through his joyful, detailed, and at times relentless investigation of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, and his beloved Mozart, Michael unlocked a secret passageway for our patrons – one to magical rooms with musical gears and pulleys that expose how the artistic machine actually works. He created an atmosphere of curiosity that inspires all of us at Wintergreen Music - a spirit and a vibe that we will strive to maintain.
Through the years, we have celebrated Michael in various ways. In 2016, our opening night was a “This is Your Life” - style concert for his 85th birthday. We even sang the Yankee’s theme song, just for Michael! Last year, we toasted his 90th with a virtual birthday party, complete with online performances by Steve Larson and Annie Trepanier, two of our Festival Artists. Countless Festival Artists have premiered his works, and we are currently dedicating a section of our website as a resource for Michael White fans to see and hear his impressive catalogue of music. Although that project will take some time to complete, with expected unveiling in the Fall, we are grateful to be able to honor his life this summer with a few special projects.
We will miss Michael very much, but we are thankful for his many years with us. Those years did not teach us just about Mozart or Beethoven . . . or the golden mean and the circle of fifths, but they also taught us that curiosity is worth it – that the act of investigating, asking questions, and challenging assumptions makes listening to music a truly transformative and transcendent experience.”
About Michael White
Three Ford Foundation Fellowships; Guggenheim Fellowship; awards and grants from the Soros Foundation, Fell Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Columbia U., Unesco, Oberlin Conservatory, and ASCAP. Lectures for the New York Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony, and for festivals in Bowdoin, Maine; Charlottesville, Va.; and Rockport, Mass., among others. Former faculty member of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Philadelphia Musical Academy (chairman, theory and composition dept.). Operas produced in Seattle (The Dybbuk); in Philadelphia (The Metamorphosis); in London (Through the Looking Glass); in Riga, Latvia (Diary of a Madwoman). Many performances of chamber and vocal works in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Chicago.
Degrees and Studies
Oberlin Conservatory; Chicago Musical College; B.S. and M.S. in composition, The Juilliard School; composition studies with Peter Mennin and Vincent Persichetti.
The Juilliard School
Faculty 1979-2022; Evening Division 1991-2022.
