Philip Aaberg, the American pianist and composer, died on May 23, 2026, at age 77 of pneumonia.
Born in Havre, Montana, in 1949 and raised in Chester, he began performing with local bands as a teenager. He later won a Leonard Bernstein Scholarship to study music at Harvard and, after graduating, moved to Oakland, California, where he played blues clubs and toured with Elvin Bishop’s Group.
Aaberg gained wider recognition through a series of piano recordings on Windham Hill Records, beginning with High Plains in 1985.
Philip Aaberg, 77, American pianist, pneumonia.