Robert Palmer exerted an influence on the development of American music far greater than his current obscurity would suggest: he founded the doctoral program in music composition at Cornell University, which was the first in the United States (and quite possibly the world), and generations of Cornell composers remember his gentle, kind nature, his infallible ear, and his probing intellect.

Steven Stucky

LISTEN to an excerpt of Second Concerto for Orchestra Commissioned for the inaugural season of Walt Disney Concert …