Music Professor Had 'Extraordinary Talent'

UC Berkeley music professor and renowned composer Jorge Liderman committed suicide Sunday morning by jumping in front of a BART train, authorities said, a day before one of his pieces was set to premiere in a San Francisco music hall.

Liderman, 50, was struck and killed at about 10 a.m. by a Richmond-bound train at the El Cerrito Plaza station, said BART spokesperson Linton Johnson.

The train's operator told investigators Liderman was alone on the platform before he jumped onto the tracks, Johnson said.

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

Liderman, an award-winning Argentinian composer, was expected to attend a workshop Sunday where a violinist played a piece he was commissioned to write for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.

Colleagues remember Liderman as a soft-spoken, quiet man and a brilliant musician who brought worldwide attention to the UC Berkeley music department.

As a boy in Buenos Aires, he was inspired to become a composer when he met famous Argentinian musician Astor Piazzolla, said Robert Cole, a longtime friend and the director of Cal Performances.

Liderman studied music in Jerusalem, and much of his work incorporated elements of Jewish and Latin American history and culture.

He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1989, and taught music theory and composition to undergraduate and graduate students.

Bonnie Wade, chair of the music department, said Liderman attracted students from around the world.

"He was a great composer, first and foremost," Wade said. "He really raised the profile of the department and connected it to the composition world in Latin America and Europe."

Wade described him as a "quiet, kind man with a wry sense of humor."

Cal Performances celebrated Liderman's 50th birthday on Nov. 18 by playing a lineup consisting entirely of his work, Cole said.

Liderman's wife Mimi Wolff described her husband as a man who best conveyed his feelings through music.

"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."

Most colleagues declined to speculate about Liderman's mental state.

"I heard that he was not feeling well, but I didn't know it was this serious," Cole said. "He was a big, important person in the music world, and I'm very sorry."

Organizers said Liderman's piece "Furthermore..." would go on at its planned time last night at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum at 8 p.m.

Liderman is survived by his wife Mimi Wolff of Richmond, his sister Claudia and his mother Sarah, who live in Argentina.

Colleagues will remember him at an informal gathering today at 3 p.m. in the upper lobby of Hertz Hall, Wade said. She said a memorial event, probably a concert, will be scheduled later this month.

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