Renowned composer ("West Side Story", "Candide", "On The Town"),conductor, arranger, pianist, educator, author, TV/radio host, educatedat the Boston Latin School and Harvard University (BA) with WalterPiston. Edward Burlingame Hill and A. Tillman Merritt. He studied pianowith Helen Coates, Heinrich Gebhard and Isabelle Vengerova, at theCurtis Institute with Fritz Reiner, and at the Berkshire Music Centerwith Serge Koussevitzky (and became an assistant to Koussevitzky). Hewas assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943-1944, andconductor of the New York Symphony, 1945-1948.

He was music advisor to the Israel Philharmonic from 1948-1949, and amember of the faculty at the Berkshire Music Center from 1948 (thoughhe did take leaves of absence), and head of the conducting departmentthere in 1951. He was Professor of Music at Brandeis University,1951-1956; and co-conductor of the New York Philharmonic, 1957-1958,and music director there after 1958. He won an Emmy award for histelevised Young People's Concerts. He was guest conductor of symphonyorchestras in the USA and Europe, and conducted the Israel Philharmonicseven times between 1947 and 1957. He toured the US with Koussevitzkyin 1951, and was the first American to conduct at the La Scala OperaHouse in Milan, in 1953. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in Denmark,and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

He joined ASCAP in 1944, and his chief musical collaborators includedBetty Comden, Adolph Green, John Latouche, and Stephen Sondheim. Hissong compositions include "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "SomeOther Time", "I Can Cook, Too", "I Get Carried Away", "Lucky to Be Me","Ohio", "A Quiet Girl", "It's Love", "A Little Bit in Love", "WrongNote Rag", "Glitter and Be Gay", "El Dorado", "The Best of All PossibleWorlds", "Maria", "Tonight", "Something's Coming", "I Feel Pretty","Cool", "America", and "Gee, Officer Krupke".