Music Professor Struck by Train in Apparent Suicide

A UC Berkeley music professor and award-winning composer was killed yesterday morning when he was struck by a BART train in an apparent suicide, Contra Costa County authorities said.

Jorge Liderman, 50, was alone on the El Cerrito Plaza platform before apparently jumping out onto the tracks shortly before 10:00 a.m., said BART spokesperson Linton Johnson.

He was killed instantly.

The train's operator told investigators that Liderman jumped in front of the Richmond-bound train about 5 seconds before it struck him, Johnson said.

His death has been classified as a suicide, according to an official at the Contra Costa County Coroner's Office.

But Johnson said BART police have not called the death a suicide because they were waiting to see if a medical emergency could have caused Liderman to fall onto the tracks.

Born in Buenos Aires, Liderman studied music in Jerusalem and earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago.

He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1989, and taught music theory and 20th century music.

Liderman's opera, Antigona Furiosa, won the 1992 Munich Biennale International Prize in Composition.

Liderman is survived by his wife Mimi Wolff, his sister Claudia and his mother Sarah.

"Jorge was a wonderful, kind and loving man," Wolff said in a statement. "He had an extraordinary talent for expressing himself through his music. He was a very private person and everything he wanted to communicate to the public he did through his music."

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