George Green
George Green,professor emeritus of music, died on July 17, 1999.
Born in Mount Kisco, N.Y., George received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastman School of Music in the early 1950s and a doctorate of musical arts from Cornell University in 1969.
He joined the Skidmore music faculty in 1971, having also taught at the University of Kansas, Ohio State, Furman, and the University of Vermont. As department chair for eight years, George helped reshape the traditional focus on music education and performance by building more a academic curriculum with music theory and music history. The Collegium Musicum, a Skidmore ensemble that performed early and rarely heard music, was founded under his leadership. In recognition of his talent as a composer, musician, and visionary department chair, the faculty selected him to deliver the Edwin Moseley Faculty Research Lecture in 1983. George retired from the Skidmore faculty in 1995.
George had a number if compositions published, recorded, and performed; at the time of his appointment at Skidmore, he was in residence at Saratoga’s Yaddo artist’s retreat as a composer. He made his New York City debut as violinist-composer in 1980 at Carnegie Hall. He performed both as soloist with numerous orchestras and in the first violin section of the Cincinnati Symphony. In 1973 he helped bring the legendary American composer Aaron Copeland to Skidmore for a residency.
After retirement, George continued to live in Ballston Spa with his wife, Gene Marie, who was an oboist and lecturer in Skidmore’s Music Department. In the spring of 1999, George coordinated and performed in a series of baroque concerts at the Hyde Museum in nearby Glens Falls; that last concert featured his son, Michael, on baroque bassoon.
Three children, a sister, and two grandsons survived him.