Jorge Leon Schidlowsky Gaete was a Chilean and Israeli composer and painter.
24 Facts About Leon Schidlowsky
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Leon Schidlowsky wrote music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, and instruments including the piano, violin, cello, flute, mandolin, guitar, harp, organ.
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Leon Schidlowsky's compositions have been performed in numerous countries, with orchestra conductors including Aldo Ceccato, Clytus Gottwald, Erhard Karkoschka, Herbert Kegel, Lukas Foss, Zubin Mehta and Hermann Scherchen.
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Leon Schidlowsky was born in Santiago de Chile on 21 July 1931.
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Leon Schidlowsky studied there at the Instituto Nacional from 1940 to 1947, and the piano with Roberto Duncker at the Conservatorio Nacional of the Universidad de Chile from 1942 to 1948, completing with a diploma.
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Leon Schidlowsky then studied composition with Juan Allende-Blin and Fre Focke, as well as philosophy and psychology.
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Leon Schidlowsky completed his studies in Germany at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold.
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Leon Schidlowsky met his future wife there, Susanne they married in 1953.
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In 1956 Leon Schidlowsky produced Nacimiento, considered the first electroacoustic work composed in Latin America.
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Leon Schidlowsky served as director of the music library at the Instituto de Extension Musical in 1961 and 1962, and as secretary-general of the Asociacion Nacional de Compositores from 1961 to 1963.
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Leon Schidlowsky served as director-general of the Instituto de Extension Musical, of the university from 1962 to 1966.
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In 1964, Leon Schidlowsky was, together with Luigi Dallapiccola and Alberto Ginastera, a member of the jury in a composers' competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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In 1965, Leon Schidlowsky was appointed Professor of Composition at the Conservatorio Nacional, serving until 1968.
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Leon Schidlowsky participated in the Festival of the Three Worlds in Merida, Venezuela, in 1968, with lectures and discussions with the composers Krzyztof Penderecki and Luigi Nono.
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In 1969, Leon Schidlowsky was appointed Professor for Composition and Music Theory at the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music at the Tel Aviv University.
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Leon Schidlowsky has given many conferences in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, Lund, and Saragossa.
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Leon Schidlowsky received several fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service, and stayed in Berlin twice for an extended period, where he composed and painted.
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Leon Schidlowsky died in Tel Aviv on 10 October 2022, at the age of 91.
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Leon Schidlowsky received various awards for his music, such as at the Festivales de Musica Chilena, with works of his being awarded the Chilean Prize CRAV.
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Leon Schidlowsky received the Engel Prize for his original work and his research into Jewish music, awarded by the city of Tel Aviv in June 2007.
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On 21 August 2014, Leon Schidlowsky was awarded the Chilean National Prize for Musical Arts, accompanied by several homages, press articles and interviews in the local press.
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Many of Leon Schidlowsky's works make reference to his Jewish-Israeli identity and to the history of the Jewish people, as well as to his interest in history and the political and social situation in Chile and Latin America.
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Leon Schidlowsky's music is highly influenced by Edgard Varese, specially on his concern with timbre and freedom of form.
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Leon Schidlowsky's compositions have been performed in numerous countries with orchestra conductors including Aldo Ceccato, Errico Fresis, Clytus Gottwald, Juan Pablo Izquierdo, Erhard Karkoschka, Herbert Kegel, Lukas Foss, Zubin Mehta, Hermann Scherchen, and Ingo Schulz.