Leith Stevens

  • Leith Stevens - Destination Moon [Omega Disk Records OSL-3] (1960)

Biography

Leith Stevens (September 13, 1909 – July 23, 1970) was an American music composer and conductor of radio and film scores.

Born in Mount Moriah, Missouri, Stevens was a child prodigy pianist who was also an accompanist for operatic vocalist and early audio recording artist Madame Schumann-Heink.

During World War II Stevens worked as radio director for the Southwest Pacific Area for the U.S. Office of War Information. He was musical director of the War Production Board (WPB) series Three Thirds of a Nation presented on Wednesdays on the NBC Blue Network.

Stevens wrote the music, including a piano concerto in C minor, for the 1947 Hollywood film 'Night Song' where concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein played to the accompaniment of the New York Philharmonic conducted by Eugene Ormandy. The music is tonal, with a horizontal (as distinct from vertical) compositional approach, with sophisticated harmonies and challenging virtuoso passages for the piano. The work is influenced by Delius, Rachmaninov, and Gershwin, and is both impressionist and romantic. Stevens' piano concerto can currently be found on YouTube (2016).