Leon Kirchner

American composer Leon Kirchner (1919-2009) was born to Russian parents in New York, but grew up in Los Angeles; he studied with Ernst Toch, Ernest Bloch, and Roger Sessions. Influenced by Hindemith and Bartók early on, Kirchner adopted the language of twelve-tone music advanced by the Schoenberg school, but adapted this technique in his own private and individual idiom. Kirchner won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 3 with tape (1966); his music has been performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Russell Sherman, James Levine, Peter Serkin, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Kirchner was also a very talented pianist.