Santa Clara University

Pamela Layman Quist
Composition and Theory

Pamela Quist

Pamela Quist, a strong advocate for encouraging creativity in all aspects of music education, has taught composition, piano and music theory for almost 40 years. A founder and former Director of The Walden School, a summer school and festival for young musicians, Dr. Quist is a contributing author to the newly published text, The Walden School Musicianship Course: A Manual for Teachers. She was appointed as an adjunct faculty member at Santa Clara University in 2001, later appointed Lecturer in 2005, and also works currently for Walden School as assistant director of its teacher training program.

Prior to moving west to California in 2000, Dr. Quist taught in various collegiate and conservatory programs for many years while maintaining an active private studio in Baltimore, MD. As a composer, she has written for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal combinations including chamber ensembles, orchestra, solo instrumental, solo piano, vocal and choral music. Her Requiem for the People (2006) was premiered by the Santa Clara University Choir and Santa Clara Chorale at Mission Santa Clara and subsequently taken on tour to the Czech Republic and Vienna, Austria where it was received with great acclaim. 

A graduate of The Peabody Institute with a degree in piano performance and advanced degrees in music composition, Pamela Quist was a faculty member at SUNY Geneseo, Peabody Conservatory, Peabody Preparatory Department, Essex Community College, and in the Johns Hopkins University Continuing Studies program. During her years of study at Peabody Conservatory Pamela came to know and admire composer Earle Brown and his music, thus leading to her doctoral dissertation, Indeterminate Form in the Work of Earle Brown (1984).

Composition students in Pamela Quist’s private studio and at The Walden School were winners in the BMI Awards competition, the Delius High School Composition Contest, the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts competition and the MTNA National Student competition (’75, ’79, ‘83, ‘86, ‘89, ’90, and ’94). For five years from 1990 through 1994, her students were winners in the Baltimore Choral Arts Young Composer Project having their choral works performed in public concert and broadcast locally. One student was privileged to have her choral works performed on several different live broadcasts of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show.

Dr. Quist enjoys working with students at Santa Clara University in various courses including Performance & Culture, private composition lessons and in theory classes including Instrumentation/Arranging, 20th Century Music, and Counterpoint. She lives in Sunnyvale with her husband and she has two daughters, a granddaughter, and three stepsons living on the East Coast.