Leon Botstein
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Leon Botstein (born 1946 in Switzerland) is an American conductor and the President of Bard College (since 1975). Botstein currently serves as the music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006, Botstein's recording of Popov's Symphony No. 1 and Shostakovich's Theme and Variations with the London Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Orchestral Performance.
Botstein is a leading advocate of progressive education. From 1970 to 1975 he served as the president of the now-defunct Franconia College, where he became the youngest (at age 23) college president in the history of the country. He is generally credited with elevating the academic and cultural reputation of Bard College to its current standing. In 1979, he oversaw Bard's takeover of what is now known as Simon's Rock College of Bard, the oldest and most highly regarded early college entrance program in the country. Botstein is also Bard's Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities.
Botstein's written work includes Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture and several other books in the fields of musicology and education.
Botstein is the brother of biologist David Botstein and husband of art historian Barbara Haskell.
[edit] Works
- "Judentum und Modernität" (Vienna, 1991)
- "Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture" (New York, 1977, ISBN 0-385-47555-1)
- "The Compleat Brahms" (New York, 1999), editor
- "The Musical Quarterly", editor
- "quasi una fantasia: Juden und die Musikstadt Wien" (Timms, Edward / Hanak, Werner / Botstein, Leon / Jüdisches Museum Wien ) (with 2 CDs)
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