Discipline: Music Composition

Edward Laufer

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Halifax, CANADA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1967, 1967, 1968

Edward Constantin Laufer (1938-2014) was a Canadian music theorist, teacher, and composer.

Born in Zürich, his family emigrated to Canada in 1939, settling in Halifax. He obtained his bachelor’s of music degree from the University of Toronto in 1957 and his master’s of music degree from the same institution in 1960. He studied composition with John Weinzweig, John Beckwith, Oskar Morawetz, and Talivaldis Kenins. Sometime after 1960 he temporarily settled in the New York area, attending the Juilliard School where he studied piano with Edward Steuermann and composition with Vincent Persichetti. At Princeton, he studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Earl Kim, and Roger Sessions. While in the New York area, he studied Schenkerian Analysis privately with Ernst Oster. He obtained a master’s of fine arts from Princeton University in 1964.

Before returning to Canada, he taught at Smith College from 1969–71, the State University of New York at Purchase from 1972–74, and the Mannes College of Music from 1973–74. Moving back to Toronto, he was composer-in-residence from 1974–75 at the University of Toronto, and then became a member of its faculty of music.

He gave lectures in Canada, the United States, Finland, and England. He published articles in Perspectives of New Music, Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, and Intégral.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

Edward Laufer worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

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