Lawrence Leonard

Lawrence Leonard (born August 23, 1923, died January 4, 2001) was a British conductor, cellist, composer, teacher and writer.

Leonard received his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music and the École Normale de Musique de Paris. His musical career began at age 16 as an orchestral cellist with the London Symphony Orchestra, playing under such conductors as Sir Henry Wood, Richard Strauss and Leopold Stokowski. He was Associate Conductor of the BBC Northern Orchestra and Assistant Conductor to Sir John Barbirolli at the Hallé Orchestra (1963-1968). At the request of Leonard Bernstein, he conducted the London premiere of "West Side Story" in 1959. Leonard was also a close friend of cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung, and participated, both as conductor and composer, in the celebrated "Hoffnung Concerts" in the 1950s and 1960s.

He was Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (1968-1973), where two of his orchestral compositions were premiered (an adaptation of Machaut's "Grande Messe de Notre Dame" in 1972 and "Group Questions for Orchestra" in 1973). Other original orchestral compositions include "Four Pieces", "Four Contrasts", "Break", "Processional", "A Short Overture", "A Swinging Tune" and the symphonic poem "Mezoon" (written for the Sultan of Oman). He arranged Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition" for piano and orchestra in 1977. He also conducted the Edmonton Symphony in a 1971 concert featuring the British rock band Procol Harum, which was recorded and released commercially as "Procol Harum Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra."

In 1980, Leonard wrote "The Horn of Mortal Danger", a children's adventure tale set in a secret civilisation underneath London. It was a 'completely new departure' from anything he had done before.

In later years, he was Professor of Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Morley College, and regularly conducted the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra. He also authored the irreverent yet insightful book "1812 and All That: A Concise History of Music from 30,000BC to the Millennium".

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References

cite book
last = Leonard
first = Lawrence
title = 1812 and All That: A Concise History of Music from 30,000BC to the Millennium
publisher = Sound And Vision
date = 2000
id = ISBN 0-920151-33-7

cite web
title = Lawrence Leonard obituary
publisher = Music and Vision
url = http://www.mvdaily.com/news/item.cgi?id=101375
accessdate = 2006-09-01

cite web
last = Baker
first = D.T
title = Edmonton Symphony History
publisher = Edmonton Symphony Orchestra website
url = http://www.edmontonsymphony.com/AbouttheESO/HistoryoftheESO/tabid/261/Default.aspx

cite book
last = Leonard
first = Lawrence
title = The Horn of Mortal Danger
publisher = Cox and Wyman Ltd
date = 1980
id = ISBN 0-7445-0847-9