Morton, Lawrence
Morton, Lawrence
Morton, Lawrence , American music critic, impresario, and musicologist; b. Duluth, Minn., July 13, 1904; d. Santa Monica, Calif., May 8,1987. He earned a living as a film theater organist in Chicago and N.Y. In 1937 he moved to Los Angeles, where he devoted himself mainly to music criticism. In 1954 he joined Peter Yates to organize the famous West Coast concert series Evenings on the Roof (later Monday Evening Concerts), which was devoted to the performance of modern music and lesser-known works from earlier repertoires. He championed Boulez, and, among lesser lights, Dahl, in his programs, as well as Stravinsky, Copland, Schoenberg, and other celebrated masters. The Lawrence Morton Fund was established in 1987 to facilitate the completion of his historical documentation of the above-named concert series; his rich and extensive archives were donated to the Special Collections aspect of the Research Library at the Univ. of Calif, at Los Angeles.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire