Gerald M. Ginsburg (1932-2019) was a prolific composer who set hundreds of poems to music in his fifty years of artistic output. He was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 7th, 1932; he earned degrees in composition from Oberlin (BM) and the Manhattan School of Music (MM). He studied piano with Rudolph Ganz, Jack Radunsky, Dora Zaslavsky, and composition with Roy Harris and Ludmilla Ulehla. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the New School, and the Kennedy Center, among many other venues.

Ginsburg’s signature contribution was a style of song he called “Theater Lieder,” which brought together the lyrical elements of musical theater and classical art song structure. Following his debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1974, his career highlights included a premiere of song settings based on the work of Willa Cather at the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Spring Conference (Nebraska, 1979); original song settings of Paul Verlaine's poetry (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 1998); An American à Paris (Merkin Concert Hall, 2000); a Heinrich Heine Tribute entitled Aus Schmerzen zu Lieder-From Sorrows to Songs ( Weill Recital Hall, 2003), and many programs of original music with the composer at the piano at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Chelsea, NYC. In 2017, to mark his 85th birthday, Gerry's life and music was celebrated in a concert The Music of Words, presented by Sounds of the City in Manhattan. An endlessly curious and evolving artist, Gerry's primary aim was to celebrate the beauty of the world and bring enjoyment to his audiences.

Gerry passed away in New York City on April 12, 2019. In his final years, he established The Herman, Rebecca, and Gerald Ginsburg Foundation (named after his parents) as a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting and disseminating the music to which he dedicated his life.