05/16/2024
LARRY POLANSKY
October 16, 1954 – May 9, 2024
We mourn the death of Larry Polansky, professor emeritus of Dartmouth and University of California Santa Cruz, who died last week. He was a great friend and advisor to Randy Hostetler Living Room Music projects and publisher of Randy Hostetler's vocal work, "Happily Ever After." A brilliant and creative composer, guitarist, mandolinist, professor, scholar and publisher of new music, Larry Polansky was one of the country's leading advocates for new music. His articles and scores appear in leading journals devoted to new music and his own compositions have been published as CD's on several labels. Many of his scores and recordings are available from Frog Peak Music, a composers' collective he co-founded and co-directed with Jody Diamond and which publishes the scores of giants in the new music world such as Lou Harrison, Christian Wolff and James Tenney, with whom he was also close friends. He is especially noted for his early research, writings and publication of the music of women composers like Johanna Beyer and Ruth Crawford. Charismatic, witty and generous, Larry was a force of nature who ceaselessly promoted the new music works of other artists in his extensive network and connected them with each other. Larry's extremely interesting and impressive catalog of writings, letters and scores are housed at NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections.
