Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American avant-garde composer who pioneered some of the most influential compositional techniques of the 20th century and was also one of its leading music professors. He was particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.
Born in 1916 in Philadelphia, Babbitt raised in Jackson, Miss. He studied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and received a B.A. from New York University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Princeton. During World War II, he worked as a math researcher at Princeton and studied music there with Roger Sessions.
Babbitt taught at Princeton University from 1938 to 1984, when he retired as a professor emeritus of music. His students included the composers Mario Davidovsky and Fred Lerdahl and musical theater giant Stephen Sondheim.
He is survived by a daughter, Betty Anne Duggan, and two grandchildren.
(sources: New Jersey Times, NPR, Wikipedia)
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