Martin William Karlins (b. New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, February 25, 1932; d. Northbrook

Northbrook, Illinois

Northbrook is a village located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, which is also a North Shore suburb of Chicago. The population was 33,170 at the 2010 census....

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, May 11, 2005) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer of contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

.

He obtained B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, and, in 1965, a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

. His composition instructors were Frederick Piket, Philip Bezanson

Philip Bezanson

Philip Thomas Bezanson was an American composer and educator.-Life:Born in Athol, Massachusetts, he graduated from Yale University School of music in 1940 and after war services enrolled in the graduate program of composition at the State University of Iowa were he joined its faculty eight years...

, Richard Hervig, Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe was a German-born composer.-Life:Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni...

, and Vittorio Giannini

Vittorio Giannini

Vittorio Giannini was a neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.-Life and work:...

.

Karlins taught composition at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 beginning in 1967. His notable students include Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer.Augusta Read Thomas was born in Glen Cove, New York. She attended The Green Vale School and later moved on to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and then studied composition with Jacob Druckman at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of...

, Maggi Payne

Maggi Payne

Maggi Payne is a composer, flutist, video artist, recording engineer/editor, and historical remastering engineer who creates electroacoustic, instrumental, and vocal works, and works involving visuals ....

, and David Gaines

David Gaines (composer)

David Gaines is an American composer of contemporary classical music.He grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and was a euphonium and bass trombone player in both bands and orchestras , a backgroundthat enabled him in later years, as a composer, to champion solo opportunities for low brass...

.

He composed for the double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 player Bertram Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky is a contemporary American double bass soloist, teacher, and author of The Contemporary Contrabass , a book that looked at a number of new and interesting ways of playing the double bass including featuring it as a solo performance vehicle with no other instrumental...

 and the saxophonist Frederick Hemke

Frederick Hemke

Frederick L. Hemke is an American saxophonist and Professor of Music at Northwestern University School of Music.-Education:...

.

He died at his home in Northbrook, Illinois, on May 11, 2005.

The M. William Karlins papers are held at the Northwestern University Archives.http://google.com/search?q=cache:-guRMJ5U6oYJ:www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/findingaids/karlins_papers.pdf

External links

• M. William Karlins biography
• M. William Karlins Papers at Northwestern University Archives