Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein (ca. December 2, 1892 – February 24, 2002) was one of the leading American experimental composers and pianists of the early twentieth century. Though he gave his last public concert around the age of forty, he continued to compose through his late nineties.

References

• Anderson, Martin (2002). Liner notes to Leo Ornstein: Piano Music (Hyperion 67320). (Source of Huneker quote and clarification of Suicide in an Airplane dating. The track listing for the second movement of the Eighth Piano Sonata mistakenly refers to "Sources of a Hurdy-Gurdy"; the liner notes correctly state "Sounds of a Hurdy-Gurdy.") Excerpted online at Sleeve Notes?Ornstein Piano Music
• Ornstein, Severo M. (2002). Liner notes to Leo Ornstein: Piano Sonatas (Naxos 8.559104). (Be aware that these notes incorrectly claim that Ornstein "never again played in public" after the mid-1920s; they also give an unsupported date of 1913 for Suicide in an Airplane. The dating in Severo Ornstein's website dedicated to his father, however, seems consistently proper.)
• Pollack, Howard (2000 ). Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. (Confirms Ornstein performed at a 1930 Copland-Sessions concert: p. 44.)
• Stepner, Daniel (1997). Liner notes to Leo Ornstein: Piano Quintet and Strinq Quartet No. 3 (New World 80509-2). (Well-sourced notes give 1933 as date of Ornstein's last public concert, though they do give the incorrect 1913 for Suicide in an Airplane.)