Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946, inZürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-born Americanconductor, educator, historical musicologist,[1][2] and scholar serving as the President ofBard College.[3][4]
In 1963, at age 16, Botstein graduated from theHigh School of Music and Art inManhattan. He graduated from theUniversity of Chicago in 1967 with abachelor's degree in history. While an undergraduate, he was concertmaster and assistant conductor of the university orchestra and founded its chamber orchestra.[6] His music teachers in college included composerRichard Wernick and the musicologists H. Colin Slim andHoward Mayer Brown. In 1967, after studying atTanglewood, Botstein attendedHarvard University, where he studied history underDavid Landes, writing on musical life of Vienna in the 19th and early 20th centuries, earning an MA in 1968. At Harvard, he was the assistant conductor of theHarvard Radcliffe Orchestra and conductor of the Doctors' Orchestra of Boston.[7]
In 1969, while a graduate student, Botstein was awarded a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and began work for New York City MayorJohn V. Lindsay’s administration as special assistant to the president of the Board of Education of the City of New York.[6][8] In 1970, at age 23, Botstein became the youngest college president in history after being appointed president of the now-defunctFranconia College in New Hampshire. He was offered the position after meeting his future father-in-law,Oliver Lundquist, who was on the board of trustees.[4]
In the wake of the death of his second child, an 8-year-old daughter, Botstein decided to return to the musical career he had begun atUniversity of Chicago.[7] In 1985, he completed his Ph.D. in music history atHarvard[10] and began retraining as a conductor withHarold Farberman, eventually leading theHudson Valley Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.[7][4]
1990–present: Festivals, international programs, and conducting
In 1990, Botstein established theBard Music Festival, whose success led to the development of the critically acclaimed[11][12]Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, a multi-functional facility designed byFrank Gehry on the Bard campus. In 1992, in addition to being named editor ofThe Musical Quarterly, he was appointed director of theAmerican Symphony Orchestra, a position he still holds. Under Botstein's directorship, the orchestra has developed a reputation for rescuing lesser-known works from obscurity.[13] In 1999, he helped establish Bard’s acclaimedPrison Initiative, which established college-in-prison programs across the country and is now active in nine states.[13]
Botstein also turned his attention to developing Bard's music program. In 2005, he oversaw the development of TheBard College Conservatory of Music and later became director of The Bard Conservatory Orchestra.[13] During this period, he also helped Bard acquire theLongy School of Music, and led The Bard Conservatory Orchestra on tours of China, Eastern Europe, and Cuba. In addition to conducting for the Youth Orchestra of Caracas in Venezuela and on tour in Japan, Botstein also helped develop Take a Stand, a national music program in the U.S. based on principles of El Sistema.[24][25] In 2015, he founded The Orchestra Now,[26] a pre-professional orchestra and master’s degree program atBard College; in addition to performing multiple concerts each season atCarnegie Hall andLincoln Center, The Orchestra Now performs a regular concert series at Bard'sFisher Center and takes part inBard Music Festival concerts.[26]
In 2016, Botstein received $150,000 as a donation to Bard College from the foundation Gratitude America, which was founded by financier and convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein, according to articles inThe New York Times[27] andThe Wall Street Journal. At the time, Botstein was on the charity's advisory board.[28][29]
In 2019, Botstein appeared in the documentaryCollege Behind Bars, a four-part television series about theBard Prison Initiative, a degree program offered to inmates in New York prisons. The series was produced by his daughter, Sarah Botstein, who works forKen Burns's documentary production company.[32]
Botstein is renowned[33][34][35] for reviving and promoting neglected repertoire and composers.[36][37][38] In addition, as director of theAmerican Symphony Orchestra and theJerusalem Symphony Orchestra, he emerged as a significant proponent of "thematic programming", which assembles concert programs around common themes grounded in literature, music history, or art.[39] He is also known for the series "Classics Declassified", in which he lectures, conducts, and takes questions from the audience.[40] Both theBard Music Festival andBard SummerScape continue his method of reviving neglected works and synthesizing performance and scholarship. TheWall Street Journal's Barrymore Laurence Scherer wrote, "the Bard Music Festival…no longer needs an introduction. Under the provocative guidance of the conductor-scholar Leon Botstein, it has long been one of the most intellectually stimulating of all American summer festivals and frequently is one of the most musically satisfying. Each year, through discussions by major scholars and illustrative concerts often programmed to overflowing, Bard audiences have investigated the oeuvre of a major composer in the context of the society, politics, literature, art and music of his times."[34]
Botstein's scholarship focuses on the intersection of music, culture, and politics since the early 19th century.[7][6] He has written books includingJudentum und Modernitaet andVon Beethoven zu Berg: Das Gedächtnis der Moderne (2013) andThe History of Listening: How Music Creates Meaning (2000).
In addition, he is coeditor ofVienna: Jews and the City of Music, 1870-1938, published in 2004, and editor ofThe Complete Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes (1999).
Botstein also writes frequently on primary and secondary education and universities: in addition to the bookJefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture (1997), he is the author of numerous articles oneducation in the United States.[43]
Botstein is the brother of biologistDavid Botstein and pediatric cardiologist Eva Griepp. Both of his parents were physicians who, after emigrating to the U.S., served on faculty of theEinstein College of Medicine in New York.
He is the husband of art historianBarbara Haskell. They have two children: Clara Haskell Botstein, director of legislation and governmental relations at the D.C. office of the deputy mayor for education,[44] and Max Botstein.[45][4]
Botstein and his first wife, Jill Lundquist, are the parents of Sarah Botstein, who produced the documentaryCollege Behind Bars, and Abby Botstein (1973-1981).[4]
Carnegie Academic Leadership Award - TheCarnegie Corporation, for outstanding leadership in curricular innovation, reform of K-12 education and promotion of strong links between their institution and their local community.
Harvard Centennial Medal by the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to recipients of graduate degrees from the School for their "contributions to society".
Botstein, Leon.The History of Listening: How Music Creates Meaning. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Botstein, Leon (2013).Von Beethoven zu Berg: Das Gedächtnis der Moderne. Zsolnay.
Botstein, Leon (2011).Freud und Wittgenstein Sprache und menschliche Natur. Vienna: Picus Verlag.
Botstein, Leon (2004).Vienna: Jews and the City of Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-1931493277.
Botstein, Leon (1999).The Complete Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes. New York, NY.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Botstein, Leon (1997).Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture. New York, NY: Doubleday.ISBN0-385-47555-1.
Botstein, Leon (1991).Judentum und Modernität : Essays zur Rolle der Juden in der deutschen und österreichischen Kultur, 1848 bis 1938. Vienna: Böhlau.ISBN3-205-05358-3.
(2020)Botstein, Leon (2020). "Traditionalism". In Kristiansen, Morten (ed.).Strauss in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781108379939.
(2020)Botstein, Leon (2020). "The Eroica in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries". InNovember, Nancy (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to the Eroica Symphony. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1108422581.
(2020)Botstein, Leon (2020). "The Philosophical Composer: The Influence of Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Schleiermacher on Felix Mendelssohn". In Taylor, Benedict (ed.).Rethinking Mendelssohn. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.ISBN9780190611781.
(2017)"Hungary's xenophobic attack on Central European University is a threat to freedom everywhere".Washington Post. April 4, 2017.[53]
(2017)"American Universities Must Take a Stand".New York Times. February 8, 2017.[54]
(2016)"Bard president draws parallels between European anti-Semitism and American racism to explain Trump's win".Washington Post. December 16, 2016.[55]
(2016)"The Election Was About Racism Against Barack Obama".TIME. December 13, 2016.[56]
(2016)"Why the Next President Should Forgive All Student Loans".TIME. August 12, 2016.[57]
(2016)Botstein, Leon (August 9, 2016). "Walther Rathenau (1867-1922): Bildung, Prescription, Prophecy". In Picard, Jacques (ed.).Makers of Jewish Modernity: Thinkers, Artists, Leaders, and the World They Made. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691164236.
(2015)"Can Music Speak Truth to Power?".Musical America. August 12, 2015.[58]
(2014)"The SAT is Part Hoax, Part Fraud".TIME. Vol. 183, no. 11. March 24, 2014. p. 17.
(2014)"How an Anti-Semitic Composer Created 'Kol Nidre' and 'Moses'".The Jewish Daily Forward. March 24, 2014.[59]
(2014)"Book Review: 'Mad Music' by Stephen Budiansky & 'Charles Ives in the Mirror' by David C. Paul".The Wall Street Journal. August 1, 2014.[60]
(2013)"Resisting Complacency, Fear, and the Philistine: The University and its Challenges".The Hedgehog Review. June 1, 2013.[61]
(2011)Botstein, Leon (September 29, 2011). "The Eye of the Needle: Music as History after the Age of Recording". In Fulcher, Jane (ed.).The Oxford Handbook to the New Cultural History of Music. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 256–304.ISBN978-0-19-534186-7.
(2008)"The Unsung Success of Live Classical Music".Wall Street Journal. October 3, 2008.
(2007)Botstein, Leon (March 24, 2007). "Freud and Wittgenstein: Language and human nature".Psychoanalytic Psychology.24 (4):603–622.doi:10.1037/0736-9735.24.4.603.
(2005)Botstein, Leon (2005). "Music, Femininity, and Jewish Identity: The Tradition and Legacy of the Salon". In Bilski, Emily (ed.).Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.ISBN9780300103854.
(2004)Botstein, Leon (2004). "Being Jewish". In Pearl, Judea and Ruth (ed.).I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing.ISBN9781580232593.
(2003)Botstein, Leon (2003). "The Future of Conducting". In Bowen, José (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to Conducting. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521527910.
(2003)"The Merit Myth".The New York Times. January 14, 2003.[62]
(2001)Botstein, Leon (2001). "Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Emancipation: The Origins of Felix Mendelssohn's Aesthetic Outlook". In Seaton, Douglas (ed.).The Mendelssohn Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.ISBN978-0313284458.
(2001)"We Waste Our Children's Time".The New York Times. January 24, 2001.[63]
(2000)"What Local Control?".The New York Times. September 19, 2000.[64]
(2000)Botstein, Leon (2000). "Sound and Structure in Beethoven's Orchestral Music". In Glenn, Stanley (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1139002202.
^Jackson, Jeffrey H.; Pelkey, Stanley C. (2005). "Introduction".Music and History: Bridging the Disciplines. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. xiii.ISBN978-1-57-806762-6.
^Profile: Leon Botstein,Hadassah Magazine, "Botstein is a proud secular Jew not ambivalent or defensive about his identity. In I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl (Jewish Lights), he writes: "In Judaism, learning is prayer, for it celebrates the human capacity for language and thought." He waxes nostalgic for the days of "exceptional Jewry," arguing that "Jews have entered the indistinguishable middle class…. We are no longer the people of the book; we are a people of ordinary vulgarity. The real tragedy of American Jewry—and Israel—is that we've used privilege to become absolutely ordinary.""
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