Elliot Z. Levine, a member of the Western Wind Ensemble since its founding in 1969, received his bachelor’s degree from Queens College and his master’s (M.M.) degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He also attended the Orff Institute in Salzburg and studied composition at Brooklyn College with Robert Starer and conducting with Robert Hickok. An accomplished baritone, he has appeared as a soloist with such groups as Musica Sacra, the Rome Opera, the Ensemble for Early Music, the Mannes Camerata, and the Folger Consort, and he has sung at the Kalamazoo Bach Festival. He has received five Meet the Composer grants, and his compositions have been commissioned by the Harmonium Choral Society, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, Temple Israel Center, and the Western Wind.
Since 1980 Levine has been a conductor and coach at Western Wind workshops, which have been held at Dartmouth and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts, and at conferences of the American Choral Directors Association in various cities in the United States. He has taught at City University of New York and at Upsala College, and he serves a cantorial post at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck, New York. In addition to his original compositions, his choral arrangements are expertly crafted.
By: Neil W. Levin
