ROCHBERG, GEORGE

ROCHBERG, GEORGE (1918– ), U.S. composer. Born in Paterson, N.J., Rochberg studied composition with george szell , leopold mannes , and Gian Carlo Menotti. In 1948 he joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute, where he remained until 1954. In 1960 he became chairman of the music department of the University of Pennsylvania and after resigning the chair in 1968, he remained at the university as professor of music. In 1979 he was named Annenberg Professor of the Humanities. In 1985 Rochberg was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His style evolved from Schoenbergian serialism of the 1950s to the blending of Modernist and Romantic elements in the 1980s and 1990s. Rochberg contributed many articles to professional periodicals; a collection of his writings, The Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer's View of Twentieth Century Music, was published in 1984. His compositions include symphonies, piano works, chamber music and songs. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: NG2; J. Dixon, George Rochberg: a Bio-Bibliographic Guide to his Life and Works (1992). (Yulia Kreinin (2nd ed.)