Emanuel Levenson (August 2, 1916 – June 9, 1998) was an American classical musician most active from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s. Best known at the time as an opera director, he also taught piano and voice, performed as a concert pianist, and founded several arts organizations which survive to this day. A graduate of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

who had studied piano under Joseph Adler, Levenson founded the Pennybridge Opera Company in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and Berkshire Pro Musica in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the most populous city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfi ...

. He served as the music director of several opera companies, as director of Young Audiences, an organization that brought opera performers into schools, and he taught an opera workshop and directed numerous operas at

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. Independently, he also taught piano as well as vocal technique. From 1960 to 1985 he commuted to New York City from

Becket ''Becket or The Honour of God'' (), often shortened to ''Becket'', is a 1959 stage play written in French by Jean Anouilh. It is a depiction of the conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's assassination in ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

As a pianist, Levenson made one recording, which was only released as a

long-playing record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specificatio ...

album. ''Survey of the Art Song'' (EMS 501), recorded circa 1950 on

EMS Recordings EMS Recordings was founded in 1949 by Jack Skurnick in New York City. The company won first prize at the Audio Fair of 1950 for the high quality and interest of its recordings. It issued the first recording of works of Edgard Varese. Skurnick's par ...

Jack Skurnick Jack Skurnick (March 22, 1910 – September 6, 1952) was an American record producer and writer, known as the founder and director of EMS Recordings and as publisher and editor of the music review ''Just Records''.https://www.worldradiohistory.com/A ...

's record label, included recordings of nine

art songs An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such song ...

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...

and eight by

Charles Griffes Charles Tomlinson Griffes ( ; September 17, 1884 – April 8, 1920) was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and Vocal music, voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German st ...

, performed by Levenson in accompaniment with

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

Norman Myrvik. Levenson first married Elizabeth Myers during World War II, and had one son, Michael R. Levenson. Then he married Theodora ("Teddy") and had two children, who took their step-father's name, Jeffrum Neiblum and Eve Neiblum. Several years following Skurnick's death in 1952, Levenson married his widow, painter

Fay Kleinman Fay Kleinman (November 29, 1912 – February 21, 2012) was an American painter. She was also known by her married names, Fay Skurnick, and then Fay Levenson. The medium of most of the works Kleinman created is Oil painting, oil on canvas, but ...

. Together, Levenson and Kleinman founded the Becket Arts Center in

in 1971. In the mid-1980s, Levenson and Kleinman moved to

Ypsilanti Ypsilanti ( ), commonly shortened to Ypsi ( ), is a college town and city located on the Huron River in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 20,648. The city is bounded to the north ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, where he lived until his death in 1998, at the age of 81, and where she resided until her death on February 21, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levenson, Emanuel 1916 births 1998 deaths American male classical pianists American male pianists 20th-century male pianists Music directors (opera) People from Ypsilanti, Michigan Columbia University alumni People from Becket, Massachusetts 20th-century American classical pianists 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians