George Burt, retired professor emeritus of music at Rice University, died March 28, 2015, at the age of 85.
Born in 1929, he attended the San Francisco Conservatory and then earned degrees at the University of California, Berkeley and Mills College. George finished graduate studies in 1963 at Princeton with an MFA in music. He studied with Roger Sessions at Princeton and with Gyorgy Ligeti for a year in Vienna while on an Alfred Hertz Memorial Grant.
Burt was an accomplished composer who wrote more than 40 works (orchestral, chamber, and electronic) plus scores for six feature-length films (including two directed by Robert Altman).
His music has been performed by the Houston and Detroit symphony orchestras, the Paris Opera Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony Orchestra, and by chamber ensembles in many colleges and universities.
Burt was a professor of music at Smith College, the University of Michigan, and Rice University, from which he retired as professor emeritus. His book, The Art of Film Music, has become a standard text in university film departments throughout the United States.
He is survived by his wife, Sharon; sons Eric and Wylie Burt; four stepchildren; and nine grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.