Emanuel Levenson was an American classical musician most active from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. Best known at the time as an opera director, he also taught piano and voice, performed as a concert pianist, and founded several arts organizations which survive to this day.

A graduate of Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 who had studied piano under Joseph Adler, Levenson founded the Pennybridge Opera Company in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Berkshire Pro Musica in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...

. He served as the music director of several opera companies, as director of Young Audiences, an organization that brought opera performers into schools, and he taught an opera workshop and directed numerous operas at The New School

The New School

The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...

. Independently, he also taught piano as well as vocal technique. From 1960 to 1985 he commuted to New York City from Becket

Becket, Massachusetts

Becket is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,779 at the 2010 census.- History :...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

.

As a pianist, Levenson made one known surviving recording, which was only released as a long-playing record album. Survey of the Art Song (EMS 501), recorded circa 1950 on EMS Recordings

EMS Recordings

EMS Recordings was founded in 1949 by Jack Skurnick in New York City. The company won first prize at the Audio Fair of 1950 for the high quality and interest of its recordings....

, Jack Skurnick

Jack Skurnick

Jack Skurnick was the founder and director of EMS Recordings and publisher and editor of the highly regarded music review, Just Records.-Career:...

's record label, included recordings of nine art songs by Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...

 and eight by Charles Griffes

Charles Griffes

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and for voice.-Musical career:...

, performed by Levenson in accompaniment with tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 Norman Myrvik.

Levenson first married Elizabeth Myers during World War II, and had one son, Michael R. Levenson. Following Skurnick's death in 1952, Levenson married his widow, painter Fay Kleinman

Fay Kleinman

Fay Kleinman is an American painter. She has also been known by her married names, Fay Skurnick, then Fay Levenson.Most of her work is oil on canvas, but she has done some mixed-media work and watercolor. She has exhibited in museums in New York and Massachusetts and in galleries throughout the...

. Together, Levenson and Kleinman founded the Becket Arts Center in Becket

Becket, Massachusetts

Becket is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,779 at the 2010 census.- History :...

 in 1971. In the mid-1980s, Levenson and Kleinman moved to Ypsilanti

Ypsilanti, Michigan

Ypsilanti is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,362. The city is bounded to the north by the Charter Township of Superior and on the west, south, and east by the Charter Township of Ypsilanti...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, where he lived until his death in 1998, at the age of 81, and where she still resides.