Cummings, Conrad
Cummings, Conrad
Cummings, Conrad , American composer and teacher; b. San Francisco, Feb. 10, 1948. He studied with Bulent Arel at Yale Univ., took courses at the State Univ. of N.Y. at Stony Brook, was a student of Davidovsky and Ussachevsky at Columbia Univ., attended the Berk-shire Music Center at Tanglewood, and pursued training at Stanford Univ. After teaching at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (1974–76), he was electronic music coordinator at Brooklyn Coll. of the City Univ. of N.Y. (1976–79). From 1980 he taught at the Oberlin Coll.-Cons. of Music. His dramatic works include Eros and Psyche (Oberlin, Nov. 16, 1983), Cassandra (1984–85; rev. 1986), Positions 1956 (N.Y, March 11, 1988), Insertions (N.Y, March 18, 1988), Photo-Op (N.Y, May 19, 1989), and Tonkin (Wilmington, Nov. 27, 1993). He also wrote orch. works, chamber music, and vocal pieces.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire