Rosenman, Leonard
Rosenman, Leonard
Rosenman, Leonard , American composer; b. N.Y., Sept. 7, 1924. He studied with local teachers, and later took courses with Sessions, Dallapiccola, and briefly with Schoenberg. His main mundane occupation is that of a movie composer; he wrote the scores for such commercially notable films as East of Eden, Rebel without a Cause, and The Chapman Report; also compiled music for television programs, among them The Defenders and Marcus Welby, M.D. But he is also the composer of a number of highly respectable musical works, among them a Violin Concerto and the challenging score Foci for 3 Orchs. His Threnody on a Song of K. R. (written to the memory of his wife, Kay Rosenman), a set of orch. variations on her original melody, was performed by the Los Angeles Phil., under the composer’s direction, May 6, 1971. Among his later compositions are Foci I for Orch. (1981; rev. 1983) and Chamber Music 5 for Piano and 6 Players (1979).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire