Margaret Griebling-Haigh was born in 1960 in Akron, Ohio. Margi began her musical training  in early childhood with her parents,  Mary Ann and Stephen T. Griebling.  Both of her parents and her older sister, Karen Griebling, are also composers, so that from the very beginning, composing music seemed to be a natural and normal thing to do. She studied piano with Margaret Baxtresser and oboe with Harvey McGuire and John Mack of the Cleveland Orchestra.  She became principal oboist of the Akron Youth Symphony and the University Circle Youth Orchestra and won concerto competitions with both. In college she earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music with Robert Sprenkle and a Masters degree from the San Francisco Conservatory with Marc Lifschey, having at both schools eschewed the opportunity to pursue a major in composition as well. 

Before graduating from high school, Ms. Griebling-Haigh had already won many awards in composition on the local, state, and national levels, including a grant from BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) in 1975, and First Prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs' Competition for New Orchestral Works in 1978. She has received commissions from the Schenectady Symphony, the Cleveland Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, The Cleveland Institute of Music Cello Ensemble, the Greater Akron Musical Association, Hendrix College Music Department, the Crosstown, Fiati, and Huntingdon Trios, Cleveland Orchestra (retired) Principal Oboist John Mack, renowned organist Karel Paukert, and a group of 16 nationally renowned flutists from across the country,  among others. Her chamber music version of The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant  has been on the roster of Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland  for the past five seasons, and is regularly presented in schools and other venues in northeast Ohio.  She has also collaborated twice with The Poets' League of Greater Cleveland  and has had music choreographed by Karen Gabay, principal dancer of the (former) Cleveland-San Jose Ballet. Her music is currently being presented around the country by a number of Cleveland Orchestra musicians as well as by professional chamber ensembles. Her music is published by Jeanne, Inc., Minneapolis; Ludwin Music, Inc., Los Angeles, and her own company, Musicalligraphics.

In her musical creations, Ms. Griebling-Haigh is concerned with conveying emotions and moods, as well as  with somehow capturing fleeting impressions from nature.  She identifies deeply with the feelings and descriptions written in the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, and would have loved to have known that poet. She has never made an attempt to experiment musically simply for the sake of experimentation, but writes what appeals to herself, (and hopefully performers and audiences) and what seems honest and unaffected.  Her music has been characterized as haunting, charismatic, yearning, wistful, lyrical, and colorful.  Her catalogue includes numerous songs and chamber music compositions, piano solo pieces, and orchestral works. 

Ms. Griebling-Haigh served as Principal Oboist at the Heidelberg Schlossspiele  Festival in 1981, and has performed as an oboist and English hornist with symphonies throughout New York State, as well as Erie, Pennsylvania, and  northeast Ohio. She spent summers from 1985 to 1990 at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Maine, studying orchestral repertoire, performing, and composing, and counts this place and its people among her dearest influences.

Ms. Griebling-Haigh also owns a small music publishing company works as a professional music copyist and editor under the name Musicalligraphics.  Over the years she has copied for publishing companies such as Theodore Presser, G. Schirmer, and Peer Southern; as well as for ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and for composers such as Paul Schoenfield, Sydney Hodkinson, Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, and many others.  She has served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music as teacher of music notation and the computer music-copying program, Finale.  She served for four years  as Chairman of the Cleveland Composers Guild, a non-profit organization which exists in order to assist its many composer members in having the highest possible quality performances of their works, and is currently in her third term as president of the Bascom Little Fund Advisory Board.  She resides in Cleveland Heights with her husband, Scott Haigh, who is on the faculties of the Kent Blossom Chamber Music Festival and Oberlin College Conservatory, and is First Assistant Principal Bassist with the Cleveland Orchestra; and their  daughter, Gabrielle.

Personal and Family Links: Cleveland Composers Guild my.en.com/~jaquick/ccg.html (Mary Ann Griebling, Stephen T. Griebling, Margaret Griebling-Haigh) University of Akron Bierce Library www2.uakron.edu/ccga/ (Mary Ann Griebling, Stephen T. Griebling, Margaret Griebling-Haigh) American Composers Forum www.composersforum.org (Mary Ann Griebling, Margaret Griebling-Haigh) Master Music Collective Label www.mmcrecordings.com (Mary Ann Griebling, Stephen T. Griebling) Jeanne, Inc. www.jeanne-inc.com (Margaret Griebling-Haigh) Hendrix College www.hendrix.edu (Karen Griebling) Arkansas Symphony Orchestra www.arkansassymphony.org (Karen Griebling) The Cleveland Orchestra www.clevelandorch.com (Scott Haigh) Oberlin College Conservatory of Music www.oberlin.edu/con (Scott Haigh) Kent Blossom School www.kent.edu/blossom (Scott Haigh)