- Ezra Laderman
Ezra Laderman (born
June 29 ,1924 ) is an Americancomposer of classical music.Biography
Ezra Laderman was born in
Brooklyn ,New York on June 29, 1924. His parents, Isidor and Leah, both emigated to theU.S. fromPoland . Though poor, the family had a piano. Ezra writes, "At four, I was improvising at the piano; at seven, I began to compose music, writing it down. I hardly knew it then, but I had at a very early age made a giant step to becoming a composer." He attendedNew York City 'sHigh School of Music and Art .On
April 25 ,1943 , Laderman was inducted into theU.S. Army and served as a radio operator with the 69th Infantry Division duringWorld War II . Laderman writes "we were in Caversham, England poised to enter the war. It was here that I learned that my brother Jack had been shot down and killed in Germany. The Battle of the Bulge, crossing the Rhine at Remagen, liberating Leipzig, meeting the Russians at Torgau on the bank of the Elbe were the points in this constellation that was filled with tension and waiting, victory and grief. We became aware of the horror, and what we now call the 'holocaust,' while freeing Leipzig." During the weeks after the war was over, Laderman composed his "Leipzig Symphony." This work brought him recognition within the army, and subsequently he was assigned as orchestrator of the GI Symphony Orchestra.Laderman was discharged from the army on
April 22 ,1946 . He studied composition underStefan Wolpe ofNew York andMiriam Gideon ofBrooklyn College where he earned his B.A. in 1950. He then went on to study underOtto Luening ofColumbia University where he earned his M.A. in 1952.In 1991, he was elected into the membership of
The American Academy of Arts and Letters , and in 2006, he was elected president. [http://www.artsandletters.org/index.php?page=press_releases&release=7]External links
* [http://www.schirmer.com/composers/laderman/bio.html A list of his published works is available here at schirmer.com]
* [http://www.yale.edu/music/ysm.html Yale School of Music]
*imdb name|0480519
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