Jack Behrens

Jack Behrens (25 March 1935 – 9 December 2024) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and educator of American birth. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he studied at the Juilliard School (BSc 1958, MSc 1959) and at Harvard University (PhD 1973), where his teachers included William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, Leon Kirchner, and Roger Sessions. He also studied with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music Festival and with John Cage and Stefan Wolpe at the Emma Lake Composers-Artists Workshop in Saskatchewan. Life and career Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Behrens was trained at the Juilliard School where he earned a Bachelor of Music in 1958 and a Master of Music in 1959. Among his teachers at Juilliard were William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin. In the summer of 1962 he studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School with Darius Milhaud and in the summers of 1964–1965 he studied with Stefan Wolpe and John Cage at the Emma Lake Composers-Artists Workshop in Saskatchewan. He later entered the graduate composition program at Harvard University where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in music composition in 1