Leonard Stein
1916 (Los Angeles) — 2004 (Burbank)
Leonard Stein was an American pianist, music educator, conductor, musicologist, and university lecturer. He was born in Los Angeles on December 1, 1916, and died in Burbank in June 2004. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1941. Beginning in 1935, he studied with Arnold Schoenberg and later became Schoenberg’s assistant.
From 1946, Stein taught at various educational institutions in California. In 1974, he founded the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles to study the composer’s work and directed it until 1991. From 1964, he also organized the Encounters concert program, which brought distinguished musicians together with an engaged and knowledgeable audience. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship.