OBITUARY

 

MARK ALBURGER (April 2, 1957 – June 20, 2023), post-comedic composer of more than 500 opus numbers, died of a malignant brain tumor at 3:30 p.m. on June 20, 2023. The American-born musician had been in deteriorating health for several months until his death, which came at his Vacaville, California, residence in view of his beloved inner Central Coast Ranges.

 

Alburger's innovative approach was summed up by San Francisco Chronicle critic, Jeff Kaliss, who wrote, "Alburger's music blows the dust out of Bay Area listener's ears."  Minimalist composer icon Terry Riley noted that "everything Mark writes is dramatic."

 

In accordance, with Alburger's wishes, he will be buried in the Davis Cemetery in Davis, California.

 

There will be a memorial program at Davis Community Church in Davis, California, at a date in October to be announced. Other memorial programs are being planned by Alburger's San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra; and by Goat Hall Productions/San Francisco Cabaret Opera which will dedicate its upcoming Fresh Voices program to the composer.

 

Present with Alburger at his death were his partner and wife, mezzo-soprano and opera-impresario Harriet March Page, Harriet's two daughters—her eclectic-electric bassist daughter Megan Page and soprano Letitia Page who starred in many of Mark's operas—and Mark's son, educator, and writer Cliff Alburger.

 

Alburger's recent activities have included producing 84 music-history mini-lectures for his Diablo Valley College music students during the Coronavirus Pandemic and continuing his second hike across California from the Pacific to Nevada, this time roughly following the route of the old Pony Express Trail—as well as attempting to put his compositional catalogue into some reasonably complete order.

 

Alburger was influential as founder and conductor/music-director of both San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra and The Opus Project, music director of Goat Hall Productions/San Francisco Cabaret Opera, and journalist/music critic/musicologist—establishing and editing 20th- and 21st-Century Music, and writing for The Grove Dictionary of Music.