OBITUARIES : Boris Kremenliev; Former Slavic Music Scholar at UCLA

Boris Kremenliev, a UCLA professor emeritus and musicologist who composed and researched the music of his native Bulgaria and other Slavic states, died Monday after struggling for years with lymphoma. He was 76 when he died at UCLA Medical Center.

Kremenliev received his doctorate in composition at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in 1942 after studying under the famed composer Howard Hansen.

He had emigrated from Bulgaria in 1929 to study music at DePaul University in Chicago.

After wartime service in the Army, Kremenliev joined the music department faculty at UCLA in 1947 and stayed there until he retired in 1978.

Articles on Slavic Music

After his retirement he continued to compose and write books on his specialty and at his death was preparing a series of articles on Slavic music and folklore that is scheduled to be published by the University of California Press next year.

His “Bulgarian-Macedonian Folk Music” is among the best-known of his many written works. He wrote several songs and instrumental works, among them Sonata for String Bass and “Bulgarian Rhapsody.”

His survivors include his wife, Elva, a son, a daughter, six grandchildren and a brother. They ask that contributions be made in his name to the Bowyer Oncology Clinic at the UCLA Medical Center.

A memorial concert of his music is scheduled May 22 at 1 p.m. in Schoenberg Hall on the UCLA campus.