Fink, Myron S. (1932-) | University of Illinois Archives

Born, Chicago, 1932, Myron Fink studied at the Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music and at the University of Illinois, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1954 and a Master of Music in 1955. He then studied at Staats-Akademie der Musik in Vienna as the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. His teachers include Felix Borowski, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bernard Wagenaar, Burrill Phillips and Robert Palmer.

Currently residing in San Diego, California, Myron Fink is active as a composer, pianist, coach-accompanist, teacher and lecturer. He was on faculty of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1966 to 1991. He has also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and at the State University of New York College at Purchase. As a pedagogue his areas of interest are composition, analysis, harmony and counterpoint.

Fink is a prolific composer who has written for voice, piano, organ, orchestra, chamber ensemble and a wide variety of instrumental and choral combinations. His greatest interest is in opera and music for the theater. His incidental music to Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle has been performed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and South Africa. Jeremiah, his first full-length opera, was premiered by Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, New York in 1962 and was the first opera to receive support from the New York State Council on the Arts. A second production was mounted in 1983 by the same company. A second opera, Judith and the Holofernes was given a concert premiere in 1978. Chinchilla, a comic opera was commissioned and premiered by Tri-Cities Opera in 1986. His fourth opera, The Conquistador, was commissioned and premiered by San Diego Opera in 1997.

Other recent works include four Symphonies, a Piano Concerto, a String Quartet, a Rhapsody for Klezmer Ensemble and Orchestra, and Spoon River Portraits, an oratorio for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra based on Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. His opera for children, Animalopera, was written in 2000 on commission from San Diego Opera. In 2003 Fink completed Edith Wharton: A Self Portrait, an opera based on the life of the famous early 20th century American novelist. Other recent compositions include The Friend of the Family (with libretto by long-time collaborator Donald Moreland), Bloody Ground (with script by Steven L. Denlinger) and Trojan Women.