Wednesday, September 6, 1933

I went to school today with Pauline. Went over to Aunt Katie's this evening. I got my lessons all done for tomorrow.

Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989)
American composer and critic
Born in Kansas City, Missouri
Died in New York, New York

Virgil Thomson was an award-winning composer and critic who was
instrumental in the development of the American Sound movement in
classical music in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in Kansas City, attended
 Central High School and then left to attend Harvard.

His most famous works are two opera collaborations. Four Saints in Three Acts
featured a libretto by Gertrude Stein and used an all-black cast in the 1930s.
Thomson also composed incidental music for an Orson Welles production of
Macbeth. Later in his career, he was a mentor for tonal composers such as
 Paul Bowles and Leonard Berstein.

Thomson won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1949 as well as the National
Medal for the Arts in 1988. He is buried in Saline County, Missouri, about
125 miles northeast of Kansas City.