Elie Siegmeister

Elie Siegmeister (also published under pseudonym L. E. Swift; January 15, 1909, in New York City – March 10, 1991, in Manhasset, New York) was an American composer, educator and author. Early life and education Elie Siegmeister was born January 15, 1909, in New York City. Both parents were of Russian-Jewish ancestry. His father was a surgeon. His parents, William and Bessie Siegmeister, were both born in Russia. His older brother Walter Siegmeister was an esoteric writer and promoter of Hollow Earth theory and UFOs. The family moved to Brooklyn when Siegmeister was five, at which age he began piano lessons. Siegmeister entered Columbia University at age 15, and he earned a B.A. cum laude at the age of 18; he had studied music theory with Seth Bingham. He studied conducting with Albert Stoessel at the Juilliard School and counterpoint with Wallingford Riegger. He was among the numerous American composers, including Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, who were students of the influential teacher Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Career His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary. Jazz, blues and folk melodies and rhythms are frequent themes in his many song cycles, his nine operas, his eight symphonies, and his many choral, chamber, and solo works. His 37 orchestral works have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the world under such conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Lorin Maazel, and Sergiu Comissiona. He also composed for Hollywood (notably, the film score of They Came to Cordura, starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth, 1959) and Broadway (Sing Out, Sweet Land, 1944, book by Walter Kerr). During World War II, he used to compose lullabies for his three daughters while riding on the New York City subway. His Western Suite was premiered by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra during a broadcast concert on November 25, 1945, in NBC Studio 8-H.