1. Norman Fowler Leyden was an American conductor, composer, arranger, and clarinetist.
27 Facts About Norman Leyden
1. 2.
Norman Leyden worked in film and television and is perhaps best known as the conductor of the Oregon Symphony Pops orchestra.
3.
Norman Leyden co-wrote with Glenn Miller the theme "I Sustain the Wings" in 1943, which was used to introduce the World War II radio series.
4.
Norman Leyden was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to James A and Constance Leyden.
5.
Norman Leyden graduated from Yale College in 1938, attended Pierre Monteux's Domaine Musicale in Hancock, Maine, in 1961, and earned a master's and doctoral degree from Columbia University.
6.
Norman Leyden married Alice Curry Wells in 1942 in Duval County, Florida.
7.
Norman Leyden began his professional music career playing bass clarinet for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra while attending Yale College.
8.
Norman Leyden then enlisted as an infantry sergeant on February 24,1941, in New Haven, Connecticut.
9.
Norman Leyden served in the US Army Air Forces throughout World War II and became a master sergeant.
10.
Norman Leyden next requested the opportunity to arrange for Glenn Miller, and was accepted and served as one of three arrangers for Miller's Army Air Forces Orchestra.
11.
Sometimes, Norman Leyden would write more complexity into the score than was desirable.
12.
In 1943, Norman Leyden composed the theme music for the wartime radio series "I Sustain the Wings" with Glenn Miller, Chummy MacGregor, and Bill Meyers.
13.
Norman Leyden often attended and spoke at the annual Glenn Miller Festival presented by the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society in Clarinda, Iowa.
14.
Norman Leyden is among those musicians honored by a memorial American Holly tree dedicated to that organization at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on December 15,1994.
15.
Norman Leyden worked as musical director on The $64,000 Question, and as the musical director of The Jackie Gleason Show, originally called You're in the Picture.
16.
Norman Leyden organized the Westchester Youth Symphony in White Plains, New York, in 1957.
17.
Norman Leyden conducted and arranged for many well-known artists including Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Don Cornell, Vic Damone, Johnny Desmond, The Four Lads, Johnny Hartman, Gordon MacRae, Mitch Miller, Ezio Pinza, Frank Sinatra, Jeri Southern, and Sarah Vaughan.
18.
Norman Leyden moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1968 to take over the Portland Youth Philharmonic while long-time conductor Jacob Avshalomov went on sabbatical.
19.
Norman Leyden joined the music department at Portland State University.
20.
Norman Leyden began his longstanding relationship with the Oregon Symphony in 1970 as associate conductor.
21.
Norman Leyden served as the music director of the Seattle Symphony Pops for eighteen seasons, and as conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Prairie Pops for eight seasons.
22.
Norman Leyden conducted the Chappaqua Orchestra as its second music director before moving to the West Coast.
23.
Norman Leyden worked with Portland-based band Pink Martini and can be heard performing a clarinet solo on the title track of the band's second album, Hang On Little Tomato.
24.
Into his 90s, Norman Leyden continued to practice the clarinet every day.
25.
Norman Leyden became one of just two classical musicians to be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
26.
Norman Leyden performed with Pink Martini in Seattle in August 2012, and on July 19,2013, he debuted at the Hollywood Bowl, again with Pink Martini.
27.
Norman Leyden died on July 23,2014, of an unspecified cause.