Leon Kirchner’s multifaceted career as a distinguished composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher first came to my attention during my graduate study at Harvard University beginning in 1976, although by that time he had already been a well-established figure in contemporary music for two decades. As a musicologist, I did not have immediate contact with Kirchner as a professor of composition, but rather, it was as a performer that I encountered his charismatic persona. Having spent five years as a violinist in German orchestras prior to enrolling at Harvard, I was invited to join the Harvard Chamber Orchestra when it was founded in 1978. Conducted by Kirchner and comprised of Boston’s finest freelance instrumentalists, this orchestra gave an annual series of three summer concerts, along with occasional winter concerts, until 1994. The opportunity to participate in Kirchner’s compelling interpretations of both standard and contemporary repertoire was so attractive that, even after completing my doctorate, I returned to Cambridge every year for the summer concert series. Moreover, for two years during my graduate study, I served as one of Kirchner’s teaching assistants for his course on the performance and analysis of chamber music, and thus I also experienced the transformative power that his coaching had on students.

It was much later, however, that the idea of writing a book about Kirchner and his music was born. During the summer of 2000, I participated in a six-week seminar (sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities) at Boston University titled “Refugee Intellectuals: Adorno, Mann, and Schoenberg.” Conceived and led by historian and political scientist James Schmidt, the seminar focused on the works and interactions of these three refugees from Hitler’s Germany during their residence in Los Angeles after their forced immigration to the United States. Knowing that Kirchner had lived in Los Angeles during this period and that he had studied with Schoenberg, I volunteered to invite Kirchner for a guest appearance at the seminar. A special afternoon session was arranged, and for two hours he regaled the participants with vivid personal reminiscences not only of Schoenberg but also of Theodor Adorno and musician Michael Mann, son of the great German writer Thomas Mann.