Ornstein, Leo

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(b Kremenchug, Dec 2, 1893; d Green Bay, WI, Feb 24, 2002). American composer and pianist of Ukrainian birth. As a child, he studied at Petrograd Conservatory. Emigrating to New York in 1907, he studied the piano at the Institute of Musical Art with Bertha Fiering Tapper, who became an important mentor. In 1911 he made his New York début performing standard repertory, while two years later, in 1913, he wrote his first Modernist compositions, Dwarf Suite and Wild Men's Dance (Danse sauvage). The same year he set off on a European tour with Tapper, on which he met Busoni and M.-D. Calvocoressi and gained a strong sense of the newest European trends. His first major appearance as a virtuoso specializing in modern music took place in London on 27 March 1914, where he performed his own music, together with that of Schoenberg and a group of Bach transcriptions by Busoni. In January and ...