Ernst Bacon

Ernst Bacon (1898–1990) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon wrote over 250 chamber, orchestral, and choral compositions, and was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and a Pulitzer Scholarship in 1932. Born in Chicago, Ernst Bacon enrolled in the Northwestern University at the age of 19, where he pursued a degree in mathematics. After three years of study, he moved to the University of Chicago. Bacon finished his education at the University of California at Berkeley, receiving a master's degree in 1935. As regard to the formal composition, Ernst was mostly self-taught (except for two years of study with Karl Weigl in Vienna). Bacon took a few teaching positions throughout his career: served as an opera coach at the Eastman School of Music in 1925–28, and also worked at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (1928–30). He was a guest conductor at the first Carmel Bach Festival (1935) in California and had been conducting The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra since 1936.