Obituary: Sarah Gibson, Pianist and Composer, 38

In Friday’s (7/19) Washington Post, Tim Page writes, “Sarah Gibson, an American pianist and composer whose music combined grace, invention, lyricism and prismatic color, died July 14 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 38. The cause was colon cancer, said her husband, Aaron Fullerton…. Her work had come in for excited admiration ever since she was in her early 20s…. She had her new piece, entitled ‘beyond the beyond,’ nearly finished for its world premiere [at the BBC Proms in August] but grew too sick to finish it … In 2022, Ms. Gibson was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras [with the support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation] to write ‘to make this mountain taller,’ which has already been given its premiere by the Sarasota Orchestra in Florida [with additional performances by orchestras in Pittsburgh, Knoxville, Lansing, and Pocatello]…. Sarah Elizabeth Gibson was born in Spartanburg, S.C., on May 21, 1986 … She began taking piano lessons at 7 and by her teens was a pianist and principal keyboardist for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra…. At Indiana University in 2008, she received a double bachelor’s degree in piano performance and music composition. From the University of Southern California, she received a master’s degree (2010) and doctorate (2015) in composition…. She served as assistant director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program and held teaching roles at colleges and conservatories in Southern California.”