Watch soap2day. The American composer and teacher Milton Babbitt died Saturday, Jan. 29 2011 at age 94. For years, New York-based journalist and filmmaker Robert Hilferty had been constructing a documentary on Babbitt. It was a quirky, loving look at a man regarded by many as a composer of "difficult" music. Hilferty left the film unfinished when he died in 2009. Composer and former Babbitt student Laura Karpman has now completed Hilferty's film.