Easley Blackwood

Easley Blackwood Jr. (b. Indianapolis, April 21, 1933 - ) – Composer and pianist. Blackwood’s study of the piano commenced when he was a three-year old growing up in Indianapolis. At age fourteen, he was a solo pianist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. While a student at Yale—where he earned a M.A.—he studied composition with Paul Hindemith. During a two-year stay in Paris (1954-56), his teachers were Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. From 1958 to 1997, he was on faculty at the University of Chicago and has continued to teach classes as a Professor Emeritus. While his early compositions were atonal and disjunct, he adopted in 1980 a microtonal approach, which was later superseded by a post-romantic style. As a pianist, Blackwood records contemporary works on Cedille Records and performs with Chicago Pro Musica, a chamber ensemble that specializes in modern music.