Leon Kirchner (1919-2009) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer--as well as a gifted pianist and conductor—who wrote works for many of the country’s finest musical ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleischer, Russell Sherman, Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, and many others.

Born to Russian parents in Brooklyn, New York, Kirchner spent most of his youth in Los Angeles, where he began studying with Arnold Schoenberg, a turn that profoundly influenced his development as a composer. Kirchner’s own musical voice remained strikingly unique throughout his career. Early influences included Hindemith, Bartók and Stravinsky. His later works, however, seem aesthetically closest to those of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, without employing the strict serial techniques of these composers. As Aaron Copland observed, “Whatever else may be said, this is music that is most certainly felt.”

Leon Kirchner was a key player in building Boston’s new music scene, and served as co-director of the Gardner Chamber Orchestra from 1995-2002. In January 2009, Kirchner returned to the Gardner for a concert of his chamber works presented in celebration of his 90th birthday. As writer Michael Steinberg notes, “Kirchner established the first graduate program in composition at Harvard, as well as a truly remarkable course, which combined analysis and performance. From this course grew a broad range of music making which Kirchner single-handedly coordinated and conducted. The Cambridge/Boston community is profoundly in his debt.”