Emma Lou Diemer was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 24, 1927 to George Willis Diemer, an educator and college president, and Myrtle Casebolt Diemer, a church employee and homemaker. Emma Lou played the piano and composed at a very early age, becoming the organist at her church at 13. Her interest in writing music continued through her time at College High School in Warrensburg, MO, and she majored in composition at the Yale University School of Music (BM, 1949; MM, 1950) and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D, 1960). She then studied in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two summers at the Berkshire Music Center.
Diemer taught at multiple colleges and served as a music director at several churches in the Kansas City area during the 1950s. From 1959-61 she was composer-in-residence in the Arlington, VA School District as part of the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project and composed many choral and instrumental works, a number of which are still in print. She was a consultant for the MENC Contemporary Music Project before joining the faculty of the University of Maryland, where she taught composition and theory from 1965-70. In 1971 she left the East Coast to teach composition and theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she was instrumental in founding the computer/electronic music program. In 1991 she became Professor Emeritus at UCSB.
Over her career, Diemer took on many commissions (orchestral, chamber ensemble, keyboard, choral, vocal) from schools, churches, and professional performing organizations. She has received awards from Yale University (Certificate of Merit), The Eastman School of Music (Edward Benjamin Award), the National Endowment for the Arts (Electronic Music Project), Mu Phi Epsilon (Certificate of Merit), the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (for her Piano Concerto), the American Guild of Organists (Composer of the Year), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers/ASCAP (annually since 1962 for performances and publications), the Santa Barbara Symphony (Composer-In-Residence, 1990-92), the University of Central Missouri (Honorary Doctorate), and many other institutions.
Diemer was also an active keyboard performer (piano, organ, harpsichord, synthesizer), and gave concerts of her own music in spaces including Washington National Cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. She passed away on June 2, 2024, at the age of 96.
