Founding member of Shepherd School of Music dies at age 69

Founding member of Shepherd School of Music dies at age 69
Professor Emeritus Ellsworth Milburn contributed much to school, field

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

One of the founding members of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Professor Emeritus Ellsworth Milburn, died May 3 of complications from pneumonia. He was 69.

Milburn, a Rice faculty member since 1975, retired in the fall of 2000 after serving as chair of the Department of Composition and Theory for more than 12 years. 

MILBURN

Just last semester, Milburn returned to Rice University for the faculty music ensemble Syzygy concert that featured his work ”Entre Nous.” It was commissioned for the Kandinsky Trio by the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association and was a featured work at the annual PMTA State Conference Concert in November 2002.

”We will sincerely miss Ellsworth,” said Robert Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School of Music. ”He was a dear man who made so many contributions to this school and the field of music composition.”

Milburn began playing the piano when he was 7, and five years later became interested in composing when he began to improvise accompaniments within popular sheet music.

As a composer, Milburn received four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and commissions or performances from the Houston Symphony, the Concord and Lark string quartets and the Da Camera Society.

”Ellsworth’s music is so vital, virile and strong. I broke a cello bow playing ‘Character Pieces,”’ said Norman Fischer, professor of cello. ”To have worked with him professionally through the years and then have many more as a faculty colleague here at Rice was so meaningful to me. I miss him.”

Before joining Rice University, Milburn performed as the piano accompanist for the renowned improvisational comedy group Second City. When the Second City company branched off to form a San Francisco-based improvisational troupe called the Committee, Milburn became the music director for the group and a permanent member of the company.

Milburn performed with the acclaimed comedy group for five years, before joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati. There he worked with Anne Schnoebelen, the Joseph and Ida Kirkland Mullen Professor Emerita of Music, and the late Paul Cooper, who recruited Milburn to come to Rice to help get the Shepherd School up and running.
Milburn is survived by his wife, Ellen Flint; brother, David Milburn; daughter, Lauren Remkes; son, Brendan Milburn; and his three grandchildren, Leah and Ethan Remkes, and Mose Milburn.

Donations in memory of Ellsworth Milburn may be made to the Composition Scholarship Fund at the Shepherd School of Music, MS-532 (attn. Stephanie Ann Jones), Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892.