Leo Ornstein led an extraordinary musical life. Born a child prodigy in Russia, he became an experimental composer and pianist in America after fleeing antisemitic persecution. At the height of his career, he withdrew from public life but was rediscovered decades later.
Born around 1892 or 1893 in Kremenchug, Ukraine, Ornstein began his musical training under the tutelage of his father, a synagogue cantor. He later studied in Kyiv with the composer-pianist Vladimir Puchalsky. At just twelve years old, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, though his father had to increase his age to meet the admission requirements.
Ornstein was the first major composer to make extensive use of tone clusters. As a pianist, he was considered a world-class talent. In the mid-1920s, at the peak of a successful concert career, he ended his public performances to devote himself entirely to composing. Until about 1933, he still gave occasional concerts, but never performed publicly again after that.
Following his retirement from concert life, Ornstein and his wife, Pauline, founded a music school in Philadelphia, which grew considerably during World War II. Teaching consumed most of his time, which is why relatively few compositions date from this period. It wasn't until the mid-1950s that the Ornsteins handed over their school to another teacher, allowing him to devote himself entirely to composing.
Although he had once been a passionate advocate of modern music, he later refused to promote his own works. He lost interest in public recognition, arguing that his purpose was to create music whose value might not be appreciated until after his death. With this attitude, he was ignored by the music world; many forgot him, and those who remembered him assumed he had passed away.
It is noteworthy that Ornstein completed his eighth and final piano sonata in September 1990 at the age of ninety-four, making him the oldest published composer in history at that time – a record later surpassed by Elliott Carter.