Martha Alter (8 February 1904 – 3 June 1976) was an American pianist, music teacher and composer. Life and career Martha Alter was born in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, to parents David Boyd and Daisy Myrl Alter. She graduated from Vassar College in 1925. Alter continued her studies, receiving a master's in musicology from Columbia University and a master's of music composition from Eastman School of Music, studying with Ernest Hutcheson, Rubin Goldmark, Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. She taught at Vassar College from 1929-1931 and took a position teaching music at Connecticut College in 1942. She died in Newport, Pennsylvania, and her papers are housed at the Vassar College Libraries. Works Selected compositions include: O Bethlehem Peace Bill George, march and song for baritone and orchestra, poem by Malcolm Cowley Anthony Cotnstock or A Puritan's Progress, ballet Groceries and Notions, drama with Gertrude Brown, book by K.K. Doughtie References 1904 births 1976 deaths 20th-century classical composers American women classical composers American classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American composers 20th-century women composers