Leonard Lehrman

Leonard Lehrman (born August 20, 1949 in Kansas ) is an American composer, organist and musicologist.

Lehrman grew up in Roslyn, New York, where he attended high school and where his first satirical musical The Comic Tragedy of San Po Jo was performed. In 1960 he became a private composition student of Elie Siegmeister . He studied music and composition at Harvard University and Cornell University, and library and information science at Long Island University , where he founded the Long Island Composers Archive . He also took private lessons a. a. with Lenore Anhalt , Olga Heifetz , Nadia Boulanger , Erik Werba , Kyriena Siloti , David Del Tredici , Earl Kim , Leon Kirchner , Lukas Foss , Karel Husa , Robert Palmer , Thomas Sokol , Tibor Kozma , Wolfgang Vacano , Donald Erb and John Eaton .

Since the mid-1980s, Lehrman was organist at various synagogues and churches in New York State. He worked as a choir conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and in 1988 founded the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus . With the singer Helene Williams , with whom he has been married since 2002, he has given more than five hundred concerts since 1987.

Lehrman is considered an expert on the work of Marc Blitzstein . He published the three-volume The Marc Blitzstein Songbook (1999, 2001 and 2003) and completed its main work between 2001 and 2003, the opera Sacco and Vanzetti . In 2010 his book Elie Siegmeister, American Composer: A Bio-Bibliography (with Kenneth O. Boulton ) was published.

Lehrman composed around two hundred works himself, including operas, musicals and drama music, church music, instrumental and choral works. He is also active as a music critic, text author and translator (including songs by Brahms ).

Works

• The Comic Tragedy of San Po Jo , Musical, 1962
• Prayer for Peace (Bar Mitzvah Cantata) for choir and organ, 1962
• 2A & B. Mazurka & Waltz for Piano , 1963-64
• Two Short Piano Pieces , 1963-64
• Sonata for Flute and Piano , 1964-65
• Two Short Trios for Flute, Oboe & Clarinet , 1964-65
• Song Cycle (tte): Three Girls' Love Songs for soprano, alto or baritone and piano, 1967
• Chorale for 2 pianos , 1966
• When Smoke Stood Up From Ludlow for girls' choir or quartet, flute and piano, 1966
• Sonatina in C for solo oboe, 1966
• Variations for Piano on "Cold Blows the Wind" , 1966
• Song for soprano, violin and piano, 1966–67
• Sonnetina # 1 for (mezzo) soprano and piano, 1966–67
• Study for clarinet or viola and piano, 1967
• Sonnetina # 2 for bass and piano, 1967–68
• String Trio in G , in memory of Martin Luther King, 1967–68
• Sonata in E-flat for piano and tape, 1968
• Duet for two instruments, 1967
• Chorale Prelude on "Kol Nidre" for string quartet, piano or organ, 1968
• Designs , for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 instrument (s), 1969
• Three Studies for Piano, 1969
• The Bird of Paradise , symphonic poem for orchestra, soprano, percussion and tape, 1970
• Monsieur Croche a la Boulangerie , motet for alto, tenor and bass, 1969
• Beowulf or The Great Dane , operetta, 1969–70
• Song of the Flies , 1970
• My University for bass baritone and piano, 1970
• Marat's Liturgy , incidental music, 1970
• Piano Trio , 1969–70
• The Bourgeois Poet , 8 songs for voice and piano, 1970
• The Circus Sideshow , 1970
• Great music , song, overture and incidental music to Ernst Toller's Masse Mensch , 1970
• Overture, incidental music and orchestrations to Bertolt Brechts & Hanns Eisler's Days of Commune , 1970
• Overture, incidental music and orchestrations to Bertolt Brechts & Hanns Eisler's The Round Heads and the Pointed Heads , 1971–73
• Three Fantasies for Four Hands of Two Good Friends or String Quartet , 1971
• Two More Shelley Settings for (mezzo) soprano or tenor and piano, 1971, 1979
• Sonata or Concerto for violin and piano or orchestra, 1970–71
• Schweik Music Incidental music for the theater production of Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Schwejk , 1972
• Simple Songs for voice and harpsichord or piano, 1973
• Two Songs of a Madman based on Hebrew melodies for female voice and piano or wind instruments, 1973
• Idiots First , opera based on Bernard Malamud , libretto (and partly music) by Marc Blitzstein, 1973
• Karla , opera based on Bernard Malamud's Notes from a Lady at a Dinner Party , 1974
• Prelude: Bloody Kansas for orchestra, 1975
• Sima , opera based on The Krasovitsky Couple by David Jakowlewitsch Aizman , 1976
• A Songlet on an English Love Note for soprano and piano, 1977
• Songs of Birds , 1977
• Benediction (by Alexander Blok ) for contralto solo, 1977
• Little Alice from Amherst, Ohio (by Polly Joan ) for female voice and piano, 1978
• Sonnetina # 5 for voice and piano, 1978
• A Red, Red Rose (by Robert Burns ) for solo voice, 1978
• Answer to a Child's Question (by Samuel Coleridge ) for coloratura soprano and wind quintet or piano, 1978
• Two Songs on Texts by Leigh Hunt , 1978
• There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind for voice and clarinet, oboe or cor anglais, 1978
• Wedding Variations on Op. 1 Wedding Theme and Wedding March , 1978
• Hannah , opera based on Talmudic legends, libretto by Orel Odinov Protopopescu , dedicated to Xenia Odinov Protopopescu, 1978–80
• Two Synagogue Pieces , 1979
• Growing Up Woman , Musical by Barbara Tumarkin Dunham , 1978-81
• The Cautious Struggle for soprano and piano, 1980
• Games (text by Peter Maiwald ) for soprano or tenor and piano, clarinet, marimba or guitar, 1980
• Germany (text by Bertolt Brecht ) for baritone or bass and piano, 1980
• Sonatina for tuba solo, 1980
• Songs for Revue: I Love New York , 1981
• I was without a song (text by Heinrich Heine ), duet for soprano and bass, 1982
• Come on - we're changing the world , musical by Guenter Heinz Loscher , 1981
• In der Fremd (text by Leyb Naydus ) for voice and piano, 1981
• A Secular Kaddish for voice solo or with viola, clarinet or marimba, 1982
• Reineke Fuchs , Schauspielmusijk die Goethe's fable, 1981–82
• Sonnetina # 6 (text by EE Cummings ) for voice and guitar or piano, 1982
• Sonnetina # 7 (text by Christina Rossetti ) for soprano solo, 1982
• Ode to the City of Cologne (by Samuel Coleridge ) for voice and piano, 1982
• Overture & incidental music for "The End of the Beginning" (by Sean O'Casey ), 1982
• A March for Ben & Mary Beth (text by Mary Beth Armes ) for voice and guitar, 1983
• The Night Is Darkening Round Me (text by Emily Brontë ) for male choir and piano, 1983
• The Family Man , monodrama based on a story by Mikhail Scholokhov , 1983
• A hiker through Germany after Heine's winter fairy tale . Song cycle, 1984
• Licht im Dunkel song cycle based on Andy Orieli for tenor or soprano and piano or orchestra, 1984
• Two Tragicomical Songs , 1984
• Night musicians (text by Abraham a Santa Clara ) for male choir a cappella, 1984
• Erotic Song for voice and piano or organ, 1984
• Love song (text by Mascha Kaléko ) for voice and piano, 1984–85
• EG : A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman , 1984–87
• Jewish Voices in Germany , Cantata, 1985
• Me & Russia (text by Velimir Chlebnikow ) for voice and piano, 1985
• The Anchor of My Heart for voice and piano, 1985
• Faulty Communication for bass and piano, 1985
• If I Could for bass and piano, 1985
• Man Who Man Would Be for bass and piano, 1985
• Three Minute Songs (Three Limerick Settings) , 1986
• Two Songs (texts by Heine and Alexander Puschkin ), 1986
• The SDI Waltz , 1986
• Two Family Songs , 1985, 1986
• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (after Christopher Marlowe ) for solo voice and piano, 1986
• Every Boy Should Have a Jewish Mother (after Joshua Vogel ), 1986
• Instead of Mellowness for solo soprano and mixed choir, 1987
• A Letter to Louise (text by John Reed ), 1987
• Conscience (text by Lewis Allan ) for voice and piano, 1987
• We Are Innocent , Kantata based on letters from Julius & Ethel Rosenberg , 1987–88
• Super spy! The Secret Musical by Joel Shatzky , 1988
• Wedding Processional for Betty Lehrman & David Schwartz for piano, 1988
• The Birthday of The Bank , opera based on Anton Chekhov , 1988
• Wedding Song for Carol Skinner & Charles Pearman for soprano, contralto and horn, 1988
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights for mixed choir, piano or wind instruments and percussion, 1988
• Sisters , three monologues based on biblical stories (Lot's Wife, Miriam and Zelophehad's Daughters) for female voice and piano or nine instruments, 1988
• A Requiem for Hiroshima (text by Lee Baxandall ), 1988–89
• New World: An Opera About What Columbus Did to the "Indians" , 1991
• Ma Adam (What Is Man?) For tenor, 1989
• Crimes (text by Edith Segal ) for voice and piano, 1989
• I'd Like To Go Away Alone (text by Alena Synkova ) for voice and piano or organ, 1991
• Kalinin Bridge (text by Joel Shatzky , in memory Ilya Krichevsky ), 1992
• To Edith Segal Love Song Cycle , 1992
• Winter Suite for Treble Voices, Recorders & Orff Instruments , 1992
• Three School Songs , 1992
• Be Gentle (text by Rev. Richard S. Gilbert ) for voice or mixed choir and piano or organ, 1993
• The Definition of Love (text by Andrew Marvell ) for voice and piano 1993
• Love Song Cycle on Seven Poems by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , 1993
• Invention for piano or harpsichord, 1993
• Wedding March for Steve Belfer and Karen Unger , 1994
• The Journey of Life (text by William Cullen Bryant ), 1994
• The Rabbi & the Rich Man (aka The Parable of the Mirror) based on a Hasidic legend, 1995
• The Longest Stairs , 1995
• Canonic Duet for Adam and Eve , 1996
• Battle Cry of the Administration of the Music Library Association for mixed choir, 1995
• Three Completions of Songs Begun by Marc Blitzstein , 1995
• Two Jewish Folk Pieces , 1995
• Symphony # 1: A Harvard Sinfonietta in 4 movements in memory of Harry Levin , 1996
• Sonnetina # 9: Bill Kunstler on Corliss Lamont for voice and piano, 1995
• The Double Image (text by George Cornwell ), 1995
• Suppose A Wedding , opera based on Bernard Malamud , 1996
• A Harvard Hero For Our Time for voice and piano, 1996
• The Vision of Chief Seathl for voice and piano, 1996
• Echo (text by Christina Rossetti ) for two solo voices, 1996
• Friday Evening Service for Cantor, Mixed Choir and Organ or Piano, 1996
• Shalom Rav for double choir, 1996
• Three Norman Rosten Songs for Voice and Piano, 1996
• For oyster BAy-east norwiCH puBliC liBrAry , 1997
• Suite for Cello & Piano , 1997
• The Progressive based on a poem by Julia Cooney in honor of Theodore Roosevelt , 1998
• The Stairway - a round for Pete Seeger , 1998
• may I feel (text by EE Cummings) for male and female voice and piano, 1998
• Emily Dickinson Song Cyclette for voice and piano, 1998
• Faith (text by James Baldwin ) for solo voice or choir and piano, 1998
• I Am in the Middle Of the World (text by Grace Herman ) for soprano and piano, 1998
• Alphabetical Song for Voice and Piano, 1999
• That Voice (text by George Eliot ), 1999
• The Golem [Sonnetina # 10] (text by Alex Skovron ) for voice and piano, 2000
• Six Duettinos for 2 Violins , 2000
• My Thoughts Will Not Rest (My thoughts will not rest) (text by Karlheinz Schulze-Michels ) for solo voice, 2000
• What Can I Give? (Text by Christina Rossetti ), two-part canon with accompaniment, 2000
• The Booby Trap or Off Our Chests , Musical by Sydney Ross Singer , 2000
• Naked Verses five lid leather for voice and piano, 2001
• Sacco and Vanzetti , Opera (left unfinished by Marc Blitzstein), 2001
• An Australian Odyssey , song cycle for soprano and piano based on texts by Australian poets, 2001
• Life Is A Gift for choir, 2001
• A Cereal Christmas Carol for voice (s) and accompaniment, 2001
• A Dream Deferred (text by Langston Hughes ) for voice and piano, 2002
• Seven Wedding Blessings for tenor and organ, 2002
• Jewish Haiku for baritone, soprano and piano or orchestra, 2002
• Two Abel Meeropol Rounds , 2003
• Eve (text by Abel Meeropol ), duet for soprano and tenor, 2003
• Sonnet to Anne [Sonnetina # 14] (text by Abel Meeropol) for soprano and piano, 2003
• The Wooing , opero, libretto by Lewis Allan after Chekhov, 2003
• I Went Looking for My Soul (text by Charles Bernstein ), 2003
• Fanfare, Summer 2003 for two trumpets and two trombones, 2003
• the girl with sea in her hair (text by George Wallace ), 2003
• Yellow Cabs (text by Rosalie Calabrese ), 2003
• America: A Prophecy (text by William Blake ) for voice and piano, 2003
• A Coat (text by William Butler Yeats ) for voice and piano, 2003
• Where Is the Song of the Artist on Long Island? (Text by George Wallace) for mixed choir and piano, 2003
• Not in a Silver Casket (text by Edna St. Vincent Millay ) for soprano and piano, 2004
• Hill in Oyster Bay (text by Fay Slavin ) for soprano and piano, 2004
• Brando Credo (based on a text by Marlon Brando ) for voice and piano, 2004
• Second inaugural for mixed choir and keyboard, 2005
• Hold Fast to Dreams (text by Langston Hughes ) for mixed choir and piano or organ, 2005
• Threescore Years Ago for voice (s) and accompaniment, 2005
• Pentatonic Prelude - for Jasmine for piano, 2005
• The Pentatonic Pentateuch - for Kaitlin & Geoffrey Kirsner , piano duet, 2005
• For Keysha for piano, 2005
• # 1 Scaling the Heights , piano duet, 2006
• # 2 Climbing Down , piano duet, 2006
• # 3 Up Again , piano duet, 2006
• Midnight Muse (text by Estela Eaton ) for soprano and piano, 2006
• The Piper (text by Karen Euler ) for mixed choir, keyboard and flute, 2006
• When Moshiach Comes (text by Lawrence Bush ) for voice and piano, 2006
• Hillel Tripartite Mantra , 2006
• What Is God ?: An End to War - Ode from Euripides ' Helen , 2006
• Sonnetina # 15 (text by William Shakespeare ) for choir, 2007
• Cascadilla Falls (text by AR Ammons ) for soprano and piano, 2007
• Why I Choose Nude Recreation (text by Michael J. Cooney ), 2007
• Conspirator Reality (text by Kim Rich ), part of a planned opera, 2007
• Shadow Love (text by Heinrich Heine: Schattenliebe ) for tenor and piano, 2007
• Long Island Songs of Seasoned Women , 2007
• jorDAn wittEr - piano solo for Jordan Witter , 2008
• Syracuse Variations for piano, 2008
• Listen (text by Walt Whitman ) for soprano and piano, 2008
• ES & LJL for piano, 2009
• Words and Music (text by William Austin ) for voice and piano, 2009
• Jasmine Choi - piano solo - for Jasmine Choi , 2009
• Prayer of St. Francis for choir, 2009
• If (text by Rudyard Kipling ) for solo voice or choir and piano, 2009
• Meditation for 2 Pianists , 2009
• For roBErt voiSEy for piano, 2009

source

• Artists-in-Residence: Leonard J. Lehrman