Composer Peter Westergaard has died. Westergaard was chair of the Princeton University Music Department – twice – from 1974-1978 and from 1983-1986. He also taught at Columbia University and Amherst. Among his teachers were Milton Babbitt, Edward T. Cone, Wolfgang Fortner, Darius Milhaud, Walter Piston, and Roger Sessions. Westergaard retired from Princeton in 2001. As a composer, he wrote mainly chamber music and opera, including adaptations of the “The Tempest,” “Moby Dick,” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Westergaard was 88 years-old.

You’ll find out more about Westergaard here:
http://uihistories.library.illinois.edu/TAMHistory/Talbot/rh_talbot5.html

His chamber opera, after Edward Lear, “Mr. & Mrs. Discobbolos:”

The text of Lear’s poem:
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ll/discobbolos.html
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ll/discobbolos2.html

PHOTOS: (top) Westergaard at the dress rehearsal for the premiere of “Alice in Wonderland” at Princeton in 2008; (bottom, left to right) cover design for the score and libretto of “The Tempest” by Lambertville artist Alison Carver; composer and friend enjoying some together time at the keyboard; Westergaard and his wife, Barbara, in 1994