Ernst Levy was a prolific composer and arranger of music, author and piano virtuoso. He served on the faculty at the University of Chicago from 1951 to 1954. .
Levy was born in Basel, Switzerland November the 18th, 1895. He studied with Raoul Pugno, Egon Petri and Basel Conservatory mentor and colleague Hans Huber. In Basel Levy taught extensively, becoming Huber's successor of the virtuoso class at the Conservatory in 1917.
Moving to Paris in 1925, Levy continued to teach and perform, and in 1928 founded the first major chorus in Paris, the Choeur Philharmonique, who premiered performances and recordings of notable works by Brahms and Liszt.
For political reasons, Levy moved to Boston in 1941, teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music until 1945. The next twenty five years were spent teaching piano and composition, conducting choral and orchestral works, all the while composing an impressive amount of work, many included in this collection. In addition to his time in Boston and Chicago; he spent time at Bennington College in Vermont (1946-51), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1954-59) and the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1959-66). Levy then retired from teaching, returning to Switzerland in 1966.
Levy became well known and is remarkable in his innovative approach and interpretations of musical works, in addition to his integration of art, science and philosophy into the performance and composition of musical works.
Levy died on April 19th, 1981 in Morges, Switzerland at the age of eighty-five.
From the guide to the Levy, Ernst. Papers, 1919-2004, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)
