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Oscar Levant

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American comedian, composer, pianist and actor (1906-1972)

Person · Open Library

Born
1906
Died
1972
Works
5

Top works

  • National Symphony Orchestra's pops, 1st season, 1941
  • A smattering of ignorance
  • The unimportance of being Oscar
  • Memoirs of an amnesiac
  • A smattering of ignorance

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1906-12-27
Active to
1972-08-14

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
4,474
Total plays
18,425

Tags

pianojazzamericancomposersunder 2000 listeners

Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was as famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, as for his music. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1906 to an Orthodox Jewish family from Russia, Levant moved to New York in 1922, following the death of his father, Max. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. <a href="https://www.last.fm

via Last.fm · Oscar Levant

Quotes

  • It certainly will be if you are still around.
  • Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?
  • It would have been better if you had died and Gershwin had written the elegy.
  • A symphonic conductor should reconcile himself to the realization that, regardless of his approach or temperament, the eventual result is the same — the orchestra will hate him.
  • I would like to have been present, if I could have my choice of all moments in music history, when Stokowski suddenly became conscious of his beautiful hands. That must have been a moment. Like stout Cortez [sic] on a peak in Darien (I know it was Balboa) he saw before him a limitless expanse, a whole uncharted sea that might be subjected to his influence, free from the encumbrance of a baton.
  • Incompatibility. And besides, I think she hated me.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA