Peter T. Westergaard *56

Peter Westergaard, the William Shubael Conant Professor of Music, emeritus, at Princeton, died June 27, 2019. He was 88.

He graduated from Harvard in 1953. In 1956, he earned an MFA degree in music from Princeton. Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt were among his teachers. He taught at Columbia and Amherst before joining the Princeton music faculty in 1968. He retired in 2001.

Westergaard was chair of the music department from 1974 to 1978 and then again from 1983 to 1986. In the 1970s, he conducted the Princeton University Orchestra. He was a composer and music theorist. He wrote vocal music and instrumental music.

His noted works include a string quartet, a number of vocal cantatas, and operas including Charivari (1953), Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos (1966), and The Tempest (1994), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. After retiring from Princeton, Westergaard continued as a composer of operas and chamber music.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and two daughters.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.