Lynn Purse

Lynn Emberg Purse was an Associate Professor of Music Technology at Duquesne University's Mary Pappert School of Music, where she taught a variety of music technology courses, directed the Duquesne University Electronic Ensemble, and served as the Area Coordinator of Composition. Ms. Purse is an active composer, writing for electronic ensembles, choirs, opera, orchestras, bands, and chamber groups. A life long nature lover and gardener, many of her compositions include themes of nature and ecology as part of the musical fabric. She has released the CD Watershed on the 3 Oranges label consisting of three orchestral concertos featuring Duquesne music faculty and the Duquesne University Symphony Orchestra. Two of the pieces were recorded in The Dr. Thomas D. Pappert Center for Performance and Innovation by sound recording faculty and students. She is also a composer and arranger for the Carden Keyboard Ensemble Series and for Ogilvy Music Publishing where she specializes in writing for electronic keyboard ensembles; her keyboard ensemble compositions are performed regularly in concert programs throughout the country.

Ms. Purse has performed as a keyboardist and vocalist with Mother Mallard, one of the world's first synthesizer ensembles, under the direction of David Borden. She has appeared in concerts in New York at Lincoln Center, Town Hall, London's Barbican Center and the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, and recorded on the Mother Mallard CD The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 1-4 + 8.

A member of the advisory board of the Technology Institute for Music Educators (T.I.M.E.) Ms. Purse was actively involved in developing curriculum for technology in music and regularly gave presentations on music technology and electronic composition at the state and national level. She earned her B.A. in World Religions at Chatham University with a minor in music, and received her M.M. in Composition at Duquesne University, where she studied with Dr. Joseph Willcox Jenkins.

M.M., Composition, Duquesne University, 1989
B.A., World Religions, Chatham University, 1974