Edgar W. Williams Jr. *82

Edgar died Nov. 14, 2024, in Maryland.

He was born in Winter Park, Fla., June 12, 1949. After graduating from Duke in 1971, Edgar completed his master’s degree at Columbia before earning a Ph.D. in music at Princeton in 1982. Edgar studied under Iain Hamilton, Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, and Milton Babbitt *92.

After briefly teaching at the University of California at Davis, he began a long tenure at the College of William & Mary, where he conducted the orchestra for many years.

A prolific composer, conductor, and music theorist, Edgar was described as having “a remarkable command of instrumental resources, imaginatively deploying sonorities within individual lines or in combinations to clarify and intensify the progressions of polyphonic voices.”

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Christine; children Ann and Joel; grandchildren Noah and Kathryn; and siblings Penelope and Joel.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.