Leonard David Stein was an American musicologist, pianist, conductor and university teacher.
12 Facts About Leonard Stein
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Leonard Stein was influential in promoting contemporary music on the American West Coast.
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Leonard Stein was for years Arnold Schoenberg's assistant, music director of the Schoenberg Institute at USC, and among the foremost authorities on Schoenberg's music.
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Leonard Stein was an influential teacher in the lives of many younger composers, such as the influential minimalist La Monte Young.
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Leonard Stein was an assistant to Schoenberg at UCLA from 1939 until Schoenberg's retirement in 1942.
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Thereafter until Schoenberg's death nine years later Leonard Stein was his personal assistant, working closely with Schoenberg on the editing of his scores, and later, completing four of Schoenberg's posthumously published theoretical writings pertaining to counterpoint, harmony, and composition, including an extended compilation to the second edition of Schoenberg's thought.
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Leonard Stein later returned to the University of Southern California for post-graduate studies, receiving a DMA in 1965 with a dissertation titled The Performance of Twelve-Tone and Serial Music for the Piano, which included analyses of important piano works by Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and others.
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Highly regarded among peers and composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Robert Craft, and Pierre Boulez, Leonard Stein's pedagogy, which stems directly from the teachings of Schoenberg, was a historical turning point in the cross fertilization of European art music in the development of mid-to late 20th-century music in America.
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Leonard Stein created and directed the Encounters concert series in 1960 with Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and John Cage in attendance.
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Leonard Stein was editor of the Journal of the Schoenberg Institute from 1977 to 1991.
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At his retirement in 1991 Leonard Stein was awarded the Phi Kappa Phi Diploma of Honor for Lifetime Achievement.
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Leonard Stein died of natural causes at Providence St Joseph Medical Center in Burbank on June 24,2004.