Marvin David Levy

Full biography Marvin David Levy

Marvin David Levy was an American composer known for his operas, notably "Mourning Becomes Electra." He was born on August 2, 1932, in New Jersey and began studying piano as a child. He went on to study at New York's High School of Music and Art and later at Columbia University with Otto Luening.

In 1960, Leonard Bernstein wrote to Levy expressing how "deeply impressed" he was with the composer's setting of W.H. Auden's poetry. Levy went on to compose "Mourning Becomes Electra," which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967. It was his last full-length opera.

Levy also wrote for the orchestra and was commissioned by the Ford Foundation to write an opera for the opening season of the Kennedy Center in Washington , D.C. He also wrote three one-act operas during the 1950s.

Throughout his career , Levy received numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and commissions from the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. He passed away on February 9, 2015, leaving behind a legacy as a respected composer in the operatic and orchestral worlds.