The composer John Eaton died on December 2, 2015, from complications following a fall. He had recently celebrated his eightieth birthday with a concert at Symphony Hall in Manhattan.
William Grimes writes of John Eaton in a New York Times obituary, "Mr. Eaton took an uncompromising stand on his art. Opera, he believed, should make audiences stretch their musical muscles. As a result, most major opera houses shunned his work, which some critics found technically impressive but impenetrable. He found his primary audiences and support in universities and experimental settings."
Both a Fellow and a Resident of the Academy, Eaton is also a Guggenheim Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow. He was a pioneer in electronic music, working with Bob Moog to develop the Eaton-Moog Multi-Touch keyboard. An obituary at Synthtopia contains an interview on Moog history as well as links to other interviews. He was a prolific composer of operas, some of his best known are Herakles (1964), Myshkin (1973), The Cry of Clytemnestra (1979–80), The Tempest (1983–85), Let's Get This Show on the Road (1993), and ...inasmuch (2002). He taught at Indiana University and the University of Chicago, where he was professor emeritus.