'' in a
Mercury Theatre presentation (January 1938) Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905. His father descended from a family of Jewish bankers. Blitzstein's musical gifts were apparent at an early age; he had performed a
Mozart piano concerto by the time he was seven. He went on to study piano with
Alexander Siloti (a pupil of
Tchaikovsky and
Liszt), and made his professional concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Liszt's
E-flat Piano Concerto when he was 21. After studying composition at the
Curtis Institute of Music, he went to Europe to continue his studies in
Berlin with
Arnold Schoenberg (with whom he did not get on), and in Paris with
Nadia Boulanger (with whom he did). Back in New York, he connected to the Composers Collective - with members as
Aaron Copland and
Hanns Eisler - known for their left-leaning political viewpoints. Despite his later political beliefs, he was, in the early years of his career, a self-proclaimed and unrepentant artistic snob, who firmly believed that true art was only for the intellectual elite. He was vociferous in denouncing composersin particular
Respighi,
Ravel, and
Kurt Weillwho, he felt, debased their standards to reach a wider public. His works of this period, mostly pianistic vehicles such as the
Piano Sonata (1927) and the
Piano Concerto (1931) are typical of the Boulanger-influenced products of American modernismstrongly rhythmic (though not influenced by
jazz) and described by himself as "wild, dissonant and percussive." These early works were far removed from the Schoenberg style. The dramatic premiere of the pro-
union The Cradle Will Rock took place at the Venice Theater on June 16, 1937. The cast had been locked out of the
Maxine Elliott Theatre by the
Works Progress Administration, the government agency which had originally funded the production, so the cast and musicians walked with the audience to the nearby Venice. There, without costumes or sets, they performed the work concert-style, actors and musicians alike, sitting among the audience (to evade union restrictions on their performance) with Blitzstein narrating from the piano. In 1939,
Leonard Bernstein led a revival of the play at
Harvard, narrating from the piano just as Blitzstein had done. Blitzstein attended the performance, after which he and Bernstein became close friends; Bernstein would later say that Blitzstein's contribution to the American musical theatre was "incalculable". The 1999 film
Cradle Will Rock was based on this event, though heavily embellished. In the film, Blitzstein (played by
Hank Azaria) is portrayed as gaining inspiration through ghostly appearances by his idol Brecht and his late anorexic wife. During
World War II, Blitzstein served as a
sergeant in the
U.S. Army, attached to the
Office of War Information. In 1945, he was one of 16 Army officers and enlisted men singled out as alleged
Communists by the
House Committee on Military Affairs. General
"Wild Bill" Donovan came to their defense, citing their loyalty and effectiveness. In 1958, Blitzstein was subpoenaed to appear before the U.S.
House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Appearing first in a closed session, Blitzstein admitted his membership in the Communist Party (ending in 1949) and, challenging the right of HUAC to question him at all, refused to name names or cooperate any further. He was recalled for a further public session, but after a day sitting anxiously in a waiting room he was not called to testify. During a visit to
Martinique in 1964, at the age of 58, Blitzstein was murdered by three sailors he had picked up in a bar, == Personal life and family ==