In Concert On Sunday, March 10th
On Sunday, March 10th, 2024, at 3:00, The Bryant Library will present a concert of songs composed, translated, arranged and transcribed by longtime Roslyn resident Leonard J. Lehrman, in honor of his 75th birthday year. The program is co-sponsored by The Professor Edgar H. Lehrman Memorial Foundation — founded in 1986 by Leonard’s father, Nathaniel S. Lehrman (1923-2020). This coming concert marks Lehrman’s first return to his hometown library in nearly a decade.
It was preceded by an evening of piano music and discussion that Lehrman shared with pianist Dwight Peltzer on Monday, March 4th at 7pm at Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library, where Lehrman has worked as a Reference Librarian since March, 1995, shortly after earning his Masters Degree in Library & Information Science at LIU-Post. His honors thesis there traced the history of concerts in libraries – specifically The Bryant Library, and those of The Long Island Composers Alliance, of which he served as its first President, 1991-98. Previous to that, Lehrman earned his Bachelors Degree at Harvard in 1971, Master’s and Doctorate degrees at Cornell in 1975 and 1977. The year after that, he served as Assistant Chorus Master at the Metropolitan Opera; and then seven years at theaters in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Berlin – where he became the first Jew to conduct Fiddler on the Roof in that city, and founded the Jewish Music Theater Association there.
Many of the songs on the March 10th program were originally written for and/or first performed/recorded by Helene Williams. Other performers joining her and Leonard include: mezzo-soprano Perri Sussman; dancer/choreographer Beth Jucovy of Dance Visions NY; and instrumentalists Link Rossano (flute), Craig Lindsay (clarinet), Daniel Hyman (violin), and native Roslynite Peter Howard (cello) – all conducted by (tenor) Daniel Barna in the world premiere of Lehrman’s Two Romanian Songs on poems by the 97-year-old Bucharest poet Zygmund Tauberg. Other nonagenarians represented, who will be present at the concert, include NY composers Joel Mandelbaum (1932- ) and Julie Mandel (1923- ). Julie Mandel and Lori Liberman are two composers being honored on this particular day, designated by the American Guild of Organists as Woman Composer Sunday.
In addition to one of Lehrman’s earliest compositions – a sonata movement for flute and piano (1965) – the program includes world premieres of new works for clarinet, violin and cello, which he created for this concert. The program is made possible in part with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the NY State Legislature and administered by Huntington Arts Council, Inc. The attached photo is of a painting of Leonard by his cousin, Stuart Kirsner, created for the cover of CONTINUATOR: The Autobiography of a Socially-Conscious, Cosmopolitan Composer – by Leonard J. Lehrman, scheduled for publication this year by Dorrance Press. Visit the library at www.bryantlibrary.org and click “programs” to register for the Mar. 10 event.
—Submitted by Leonard J. Lehrman
