Lettvin's first concert was at the age of five at the
Lyon & Healy in
Chicago. On March 15, 1939, he appeared as a soloist with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra under conductor
Frederick Stock, performing the first movement of
Mendelssohn's
Piano Concerto no. 1. As a teenager, he was accepted as a scholarship student of
Rudolf Serkin and
Mieczysław Horszowski at the
Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia. In his twenties, he won the Michaels Memorial Award, First Prize in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competition. He made his European debut touring France with violinist
Sidney Harth in 1951-1952 in a concert series organized by the
National Music League and the
Jeunesses Musicales International. He also toured South Africa in 1974 in a series of concerts under the auspices of the Johannesburg Musical Society. Lettvin performed with the
New York Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Atlanta, Vienna, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. He also participated in the summer festivals at Tanglewood, Ravina, Saratoga, Sarasota, Salzburg and Interlochen. Prior to his appointment as Professor Emeritus by
Rutgers University and the
University of Michigan, Lettvin was a Distinguished Professor in their music departments, where he directed their Doctor of Musical Arts and Artist Diploma programs. Before joining these universities, Lettvin was on the faculty of the
New England Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Music School Settlement, and Artist in Residence at the
University of Colorado Boulder. He died in August 2003. A concert series in
Bradford, New Hampshire is named in his honour. ==Discography==