Beverly Grigsby


Beverly Grigsby née Pinsky is an American composer, musicologist and electronic/computer music pioneer.

Life

Beverly Pinsky was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied music as a child. She moved to California with her family at the age of 13 and graduated from Fairfax High School. She entered the University of Southern California to study pre-med, and also studied composition with Ernst Krenek at the Southern California School of Music and the Arts. She graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in composition from California State University, Northridge, and a Doctorage of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Southern California. She later studied computer music generation at Stanford University’s Center for Artificial Intelligence and at M.I.T. in 1975-1976.
After completing her studies, Grigsby took a position teaching music at California State University, Northridge, and also established and directed the Computer Music Studio there. In 1984 Grigsby composed the first computerized score for an opera. She retired from her teaching position in 1993, but continued to teach privately and work as a composer. Her music has been performed internationally.

Honors and awards

Grigsby has composed choral and chamber music, and also for film soundtracks and stage. She is noted for electroacoustic compositions. Selected works include: