Leon Kirchner
- Paul Lustig Dunkel, Leon Kirchner, New York Philharmonic, The Former Harvard Chamber Orchestra, Diana Hoagland, Mobuko Imai, Laurence Lesser, Richard Stoltzman, Allan Vogel, James Buswell
Biography
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.