About Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein (ca. December 2, 1893 - February 24, 2002), born in Ukraine (then a part of pre-Soviet Imperial Russia), was one of the leading American experimental composers and pianists of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and even shocking pieces made him a cause célèbre on both sides of the Atlantic. Ornstein was the first important composer to make extensive use of the tone cluster. As a pianist, he was considered a world-class talent. By the mid-1920s, he had walked away from his fame and soon disappeared from popular memory. Though he gave his last public concert before the age of forty, he continued writing music for another half-century and beyond. Largely forgotten for decades, he was rediscovered in the mid-1970s. Ornstein completed his eighth and final piano sonata at the age of ninety-seven, making him the oldest published composer in history (a mark since passed by Elliot Carter).