Arbie Orenstein

Arbie Orenstein (* 1937 in New York ) is an American musicologist and pianist who is best known for his publications on the life and work of Maurice Ravel .

life and work

Orenstein grew up in New York. He attended High School of Music and Art, graduated from Queens College, and received his PhD in musicology from Columbia University . He taught as a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

In 1975 Orenstein published the biography Ravel. Man and Musician , which is considered an important contribution to Ravel research. He also edited A Ravel Reader , a collection of Ravel's letters, other writings and interviews, which appeared in French in 1989 and in English in 1990. During a research trip to France , Orenstein discovered several unknown works by Ravel and played them as a pianist when they were first recorded in 1977. For his services to the work of Ravel, he was appointed Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.

Orenstein is also interested in Jewish music , which he also taught a course on at Queens College. Among other things, he co-founded the yearbook Musica Judaica , published by the American Society for Jewish Music.

Publications

• Ravel. Man and Musician. Columbia University Press, New York 1975, ISBN 0-23103-902-6 .
  • Maurice Ravel, life and work. From d. Engl. Transl. by Dietrich Klose. Stuttgart: Reclam 1978
• A Ravel Reader. Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Columbia University Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-23104-962-5 (as editor and editor). French-language edition: Maurice Ravel. Lettres, écrits, entretiens. Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-066103-5 .

literature

• Amnon Shiloah: Orenstein, Arbie. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition. Macmillan, Detroit et al. a. 2007. Vol. 15, p. 466.