Maureen Carr, Founding Director of the Penn State School of Music, has Died, Aged 85

A renowned Stravinsky scholar, Carr taught at Penn State for 40 years

The distinguished music theorist and Stravinsky specialist Maureen Carr, who was also the Founding Director of the School of Music at Pennsylvania State University, has passed away at the age of 85.

Born in Teaneck, NJ, Carr studied at Marywood College, Rutgers University, and the University of Wisconsin, where she received her PhD in 1972.

At the crux of Carr's work as a musicologist was the music of Igor Stravinsky. Over the course of her career, she visited the Stravinsky archives in Basel, Switzerland 27 times, and was the author of six books on the composer — including Multiple Masks: Neoclassicism in Stravinsky’s Dramatic Works on Greek Subjects and After the Rite: Stravinsky’s Path to Neoclassicism (1914–1925). 

Carr spent the majority of her career teaching at Pennsylvania State University and served as the Founding Director of its School of Music. Students consistently praised her teaching, and she received the Barbara O. Korner Award for Faculty Outstanding Service for her work in this area.

She was a member of the American Musicological Society, College Music Society, International Musicological Society (Stravinsky Study Group), Music Theory Society of New York State, Music Theory Society of the Middle Atlantic States, Society for Music Theory, and the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI).

Our condolences to Carr's family, friends, and colleagues. You can hear her speaking about her work below.