El Cerrito, CA – Prominent Music Professor Killed by Train

El Cerrito, CA – A 50-year-old Renowned UC Berkeley music professor was struck and killed by a BART train at the El Cerrito Plaza Station.

The train conductor reported the man who officials identified as Jorge Liderman, was on the platform after he jumped in front of the train when it was about five feet away from him.
The coroners confirmed Liderman, a Richmond resident, as the fatality. Media reports have described the death as a possible suicide, but that is just one theory investigators are pursuing, said Spokesman Linton Johnson.

Liderman was born in Buenos Aires and studied music at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. In 1989, he joined the composition faculty at Berkeley.
Much of his music was influenced by the sounds of his native Argentina and by his Jewish roots.

Liderman is survived by his wife, Mimi, of El Cerrito.