Reporter Volume 25, No.15 February 3, 1994 Music pioneer Lejaren Hiller dies Lejaren A. Hiller, 69, pioneering theorist and composer of electronic and computer music and retired UB professor of music composition, died Jan. 26 in Niagara Lutheran Nursing Home. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Hiller, who held the George K. Birge and Allithea Birge Cary Chair of Music from 1980 to his retirement in 1990, composed more than 70 works, including symphonies, chamber works, concertos, and incidental music for theater, film and television. In 1968, he wrote "HPSCHD," for one to seven harpsichords and one to 51 tapes, a multimedia production written in collaboration with John Cage. The New York Times called its 1969 premiere "the multimedia event of the decade." In 1985, he was co-organizer of a UB computer music exhibit for the U.S. Pavilion at the World's Fair in Tsukuba, Japan. The U.S. Pavilion focused on artificial intelligence and the history of computers. UB's participation was at the request of the United States Information Agency. From his earliest years, Hiller developed concurrent interests in science and music that helped shape his later career. He showed his first interest in composition while a young piano student, and in high school, earned his first money from music singing a jingle in a radio pet-food commercial. Hiller held bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Princeton University. Although his primary interests there centered on science, he also studied theory and composition, strict counterpoint and ear training with Milton Babbitt, and theory composition with Roger Sessions. He also played clarinet and saxophone and for awhile, played and managed a college dance band. After obtaining his Ph.D., Hiller worked as a research chemist with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in Waynesboro, Va. (1947-1952), during which time he wrote a number of compositions, including "Seven Artifacts," a piano piece that experimented with unusual scales, structures and harmonic systems, and saw his work performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, his work in cellulose chemistry led to the discovery of a method for dyeing acrylic fibers such as Orlon. Later, as a research associate at the University of Illinois, he learned computer programming. During 1955 and 1956, he wrote with Leonard Isaacson, the Illiac Suite for String Quartet, considered the first significant piece of computer music. After joining the University of Illinois-Urbana chemistry department first as a researcher in computer applications, then as assistant professor, Hiller earned an M.Music degree in 1958. That same year, he started an electronic music studio at the University of Illinois, developing cooperative research with the electrical engineering department in electronics, computers, music and acoustics. In 1968, he joined the UB music faculty as Slee Professor of Composition and co-director with Lukas Foss, former music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts. With Foss and Allen Sapp, formerly of the UB music faculty, Hiller was a key figure in making Buffalo an internationally-renowned center for new music during the late 1960s. His awards and honors included Fulbright lectureships to Warsaw and Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; three grants each from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Science Foundation, and several American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards. Hiller was the author of three books, Experimental Music with Leonard Isaacson; Principles of Chemistry, with Rolfe H. Herber; and InformationsQtheorie und Musik, along with numerous articles on chemistry, music, computers, acoustics and electronics. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, the former Elizabeth Halsey; a son, David of Washington, D.C., and a daughter, Amanda Hiller of Albany. A memorial concert will be held at a future date. The Music Library is holding an exhibit of scores, books, articles, recordings and other memorabilia commemorating Hiller's life. Funeral services will be held this weekend at Second Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 812 East Delavan Ave., Buffalo, for Denise J. Broughton, 30, senior admissions officer at the university, who was killed in her Connelly Avenue home sometime during the weekend. Buffalo Police are seeking the driver of her car, a 1987 Buick Somerset recovered Tuesday from a lot behind a building near Bennett High School on Main Street. No arrests have been made. Director of Admissions Kevin Durkin described Broughton as sensitive, caring and hard-working. "We're absolutely devastated," he said. . "Denise had an awful lot of vitality, just an infectious, kind of upbeat attitude that influenced the people with whom she worked. She was a very productive member of a very productive team. "She was committed to assisting all students," Durkin added, "but particularly students of color from inner-city high schools in recognizing their own potential and making the transition from high school to college." A member of the university staff since 1991, Broughton was active in statewide recruiting efforts to attract inner-city students to the SUNY system. She served on a standing committee for minority concerns within the SUNY College Admissions Personnel Association. She worked very closely with the New York City Office of Student Recruitment, a SUNY recruitment satellite office, and "was working very hard at improving relations between the admissions offices within SUNY and the parochial schools in metropolitan New York, Durkin said. Broughton "had a wonderfully aggressive plan for 1993-94 in terms of recruitment," Durkin said, and had organized a group of UB minority student volunteers to serve as hosts to visiting high school students during events preceding open house here on April 16. A Buffalo native, Broughton graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy and the University of Dayton, where she worked in the admissions office before returning to Buffalo. Before joining the UB admissions office, she was a volunteer coordinator for the local office of Planned Parenthood. A Sunday school teacher, she also served as coordinator of the Youth and Young Adult Choir and was co-chair of the Youth Council at Second Temple Missionary Baptist Church.