Mr. Gamer composed more than 70 works spanning from orchestral works to computer music to chamber music and more. As an educator from the beginning of his career, he has helped inspire generations of musicians. He first began teaching at The Colorado College in 1954 and intermittingly taught at the institution throughout his career, becoming professor emeritus in 1994. He has also taught at Princeton University and the University of Michigan. He has served on Princeton University’s Department of Music Advisory Council. As a composer, Mr. Gamer’s music has been featured at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and performed abroad in Sydney, Rome, Guadalajara, Salzburg, Oxford, London and Calcutta.
Mr. Gamer followed his nascent passion for music at Northwestern University, receiving a BMus in 1950. He studied composition with Frank Cookson and Anthony Donato and piano with Louis Crowder and Pauline Manchester while matriculating. In 1951, he earned a MMus from Boston University. He continued learning in various postgraduate studies, such as privately learning from Roger Sessions and attending Princeton seminars in advanced musical studies. Early in his performance career, Mr. Gamer was a solo pianist, accompanist for vocal and instrumental soloists, and a pianist in chamber music ensembles at Northwestern University, Boston University and across the United States.
Throughout his career, Mr. Gamer was recognized for his proficiency in writing, composing, performing and exploring musical concepts. Due to the high caliber of his work, he was selected for an Asia Society Fellowship with the University of California, Berkeley and Kyoto, visiting fellowships at Princeton University and a MacDowell Fellowship. Gamer received the American Society of University Composers Recording Award for Piano Raga Music in 1973 and a juried award for his New York performance in 1984 by the International Society for Contemporary Music. His Piano Raga Music was chosen for repertory list for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Foundation International Competition for Excellence in the Performance of American Music.
