Today’s date in 1913 marks the birthday of American composer Vivian Fine in Chicago.

At the tender age of five she became a scholarship piano student at the Chicago Musical College. As she grew up she became enthralled with the great composers and performers she heard at her regular visits to the Chicago Symphony. Vivian Fine initially intended to be a concert pianist, but theory studies with American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger nudged her towards composition. 

Vivian Fine became an avid follower of the emerging “Ultra-Modern” school of composers, including Henry Cowell, who proved to be one of her early mentors.  Fine’s debut as a composer came in Chicago when she was 16, and at 17 she moved to New York City to she studied composition with Roger Sessions and orchestration with George Szell.

When Roger Sessions saw her sketches for her “Concertante for Piano and Orchestra” in 1944, he commented: “Now we are colleagues,” and George Szell praised its orchestration. Teaching became an important part of Fine's own professional life, first at New York University and Juilliard, and ultimately at Bennington College.

Following a traffic accident in Vermont, Vivian Fine died in March of 2000, at the age of 86.

Vivian Fine (1913 – 2000) — Concertante (Reiko Honsho, piano; Japan Philharmonic; Akeo Watanabe, cond.) CRI 692