The American composer George Crumb studied in his own country and with Boris Blacher in Berlin. From 1965 he spent 30 years, until his retirement, teaching composition at the University of Pennsylvania. Allusive in style, he used a wide range of inventive sound resources, notably in his Ancient Voices of Children and in works such as Vox balaenae (‘The Voice of the Whale’), with its singing flautist and cello seagull imitations. His vocal music includes settings of Lorca, Whitman and Poe, among others.