Elliot Weisgarber

In 1960 Weisgarber joined the faculty of the Music Department at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada where he spent the remainder of his life and career. From 1966 to 1969 he was the recipient of several Canada Council grants for the purpose of studying Japanese music in Japan where he became proficient in playing the shakuhachi. In 1974 he was a guest speaker at the Asian Composers' League conference in Kyoto and also participated in the UNESCO/ISME seminar in Tokyo. Two years later he addressed the Asian Composers' League again, this time in Taiwan, prior to which he had been a guest lecturer and visiting composer at the National University of Teheran. Weisgarber retired in 1984 and continued to compose until the time of his death.

Between 1944 and 1960 he taught at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina.

Weisgarber studied clarinet with Rosario Mazzeo of the Boston Symphony and Gustave Langenus of New York. He went on to earn his performer's certificate at the Eastman School of Music (where he studied with Rufus Mont Arey) as well as bachelor's (1942) and master's (1943) degrees in composition. His composition teachers included Edward Royce, Bernard Rogers, Nadia Boulanger and Halsey Stevens.

Elliot Weisgarber (1919 - 2001) was a composer, clarinetist and ethnomusicologist at the University of British Columbia from 1960 to 1984.