Ornstein was an emblem of musical 'futurism,' a term indicating progressive trends in music, and was described as a symbol of iconoclastic art that rejected tonal orthodoxy.
Composer Biography
Leo Ornstein, born in 1893 in Ukraine, emigrated to New York in 1906 and became a highly praised concert pianist and iconic composer by 1918.
Instruments
Francesco Parrino performs on a violin made by Giuseppe & Antonio Gagliano in Naples, circa 1790-1805.
Notable Performances
In 1915, Ornstein gave four concerts entirely devoted to modern music in New York, which musicologists consider the birth date of musical modernism in the United States.
Composer Biography
Leo Ornstein largely quit concert life in the 1920s, founded his own music school with his wife Pauline Mallet-Prevost, and lived to be 108 years old, passing away in 2002.
Compositional Technique
Ornstein's Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 31, is characterized by incessant meter changes, surprising rhythmic discrepancies, and ubiquitous clusters, with the composer himself stating it pushed music 'to the very edge'.
Composer Biography
Ornstein was so famous that he was chosen as one of four pianists to be a testimonial for the Ampico reproducing piano, alongside Sergei Rachmaninov, Josef Hofmann, and Leopold Godowsky.
