Monday, February 10, 2025
Creators of great art may never see their works brought to completion. Some are too ambitious to finish within one lifetime. Others stagger on for years without proper recognition.
Yet, Leonard Lehrman believes in the reassuring power of an entrusted successor — someone else to take up where the original creator left off — thus ensuring what once seemed lost or incomplete finds its rightful place in the world. And an audience to embrace it.
“Sometimes works that don't receive the kind of reception that they should at the outset may receive them later,” he said.
Lehrman, a renowned composer from Valley Stream known for his voluminous work, including 12 operas, has built his legacy on precisely that foundation. That is part of what he hopes readers will take away from his autobiography: “Continuator: The Autobiography of a Socially-Conscious, Cosmopolitan Composer,” published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. The book — spanning over 540 pages — offers a comprehensive, intimate account of his prolific musical career, from child prodigy to gracefully rumpled 75-year-old composer.
His name has been linked with music heavyweights like Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein. But the title "continuator" was bestowed upon him by none other than his closest and most formative mentor, the quintessential American composer Elie Siegmeister.
Their relationship started over 30 years prior.
During Lehrman’s early years, his piano teacher Lenore Anhalt decided after four years of tutelage it was time for the young prodigy to study under someone new. Rosie Kabat, Lehrman’s mother’s cousin, suggested his former Brooklyn neighbor, who happened to be Siegmeister.
Despite initially declining to take Lehrman under his wing, Siegmeister changed his mind after hearing Lehrman perform his full repertoire, a 45-minute presentation that left an impression. He was 11.
Though Siegmeister charged $21 per session—a steep fee at the time—he agreed to mentor Lehrman, while recommending pianist Olga Heifetz for piano instruction, setting the stage for Lehrman’s burgeoning musical career.
“I became his youngest student, longest student, most faithful student,” said Lehrman.
Decades later, Lehrman recalled being by Siegmeister’s side in his final moments, when the legendary composer placed the fate of his unfinished works in his hands with three poignant sentences.
“I don’t want to call you my Disciple, as I don’t believe in doctrine. But I know if I leave something unfinished, you’ll finish it. You’re my Continuator,” said Siegmeister.
By that time, Lehrman had adapted and completed unfinished works by Marc Blitzstein, including “Idiots First,” and “Sacco and Vanzetti,” both the subject of critical acclaim. The former earned the first Off-Broadway Opera Award, the latter a Pulitzer Prize nominee.
At the heart of Lehrman’s legacy is his enduring partnership with his wife, Helene Williams. For more than two decades, the duo shared a deep commitment to opera and classical music, performing together on stages around the world.
“Opera has been called the grandest form of artistic expression that exists because it calls upon the use of our faculties: visual and moral and textual to the greatest extent possible,” said Lehrman. “If words are laden with so much emotion that they can't just be spoken, they have to be sung, that's a good opera.”
The final act of Lehrman’s operatic arc is spent in Valley Stream at Court Street Music, the couple’s Valley Stream residence transformed into a music school and makeshift concert hall. Their performances reach audiences worldwide via YouTube. For Lehrman, the book’s crowning message is a call to cherish the musical “treasures that are there” while embracing those “yet to be realized.”
The book is available for order or pre-order at https://tinyurl.com/ContinuatorPreOrder
