Born in 1923 to Joseph S. Eichelberger and Mary Elizabeth Pfeiffer, Jean B. Eichelberger Ivey attended high school at the Academy of Notre Dame in Washington, D.C. Though her childhood was impacted by the
Great Depression and her father's loss of his job as editor of the anti-
feminist serial
The Woman Patriot, Jean Eichelberger won a full-tuition scholarship at
Trinity College in Washington, D.C. where she graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor's degree in 1944. Subsequently, she earned master's degrees in piano performance from
Peabody Conservatory and composition from the
Eastman School of Music where she studied under
Wayne Barlow,
Kent Kennan, and
Bernard Rogers. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s she taught at Trinity College (1945-1955), the Peabody Conservatory (1946), and the
Catholic University of America (1952-1955), and
College Misericordia (1955-1957). From 1960 to 1962 she taught at
Xavier University in New Orleans. In 1964 she began a Doctor of Musical Arts program in composition, including studies in electronic music, at the
University of Toronto and completed the degree in 1972. She served as the editor of the
American Society of University Composers newsletter from its founding in January 1968 until summer 1970. ==Peabody==