Leon Levitch was born August 29, 1927, in Belgrade, Serbia. His parents both played piano, and he began composing music at an early age. During World War II, he and his family were sent by Italian authorities to a concentration camp north of Milan. Levitch found a piano in the camp, and began taking lessons from a fellow prisoner named Vera Levenson. In 1943 his family was sent to the Ferramonti camp, where in 1944 they were among a group of nearly 1,000 refugees chosen to go the Fort Ontario Emergency Rescue Shelter in Oswego, NY, After the war Levitch pursued a career in music, briefly attending Los Angeles City College before earning a master of arts degree in composition from the University of California Los Angeles. He became a well-known composer. He died November 26, 2014 in California.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Consists of six paperbound workbooks of with sheet music booklets of music (in Italian), some with hand-written notes; one single sheet of undated music (four pages), entitled"Le scale maggiori colle armonie (triadi"; one bound music booklet entitled"Jüdische lieder / Harmonie: Leon Levitch / Ft. Ontario / Oswego Youth Choi"; one notebook with handwritten notes in pencil; and one interoffice envelope with the insignia"G. Shirmer ... Publishers, Importers and Dealers" Most items were used by the donor while he was at the Ferramonti camp in Italy, or as a refugee at the Fort Ontario Emergency Rescue Shelter in Oswego, NY.
Leon Levitch music collection
oversize box 1