Fonds F0243 - Alan Lessem fonds

Alan Phillip Lessem, professor and musicologist, was born 29 November 1940 in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zambia) and educated at the University of Cape Town where he received his BA and B.Mus., both in 1963, and Cambridge where he received his M.Litt. in 1967. He taught at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and the Telma Yellin School in Tel-Aviv before enrolling at the University of Illinois, Urbana where he completed a Ph.D in Musicology in 1973. He is a founding member of the Department of Music at York University and was a lecturer, assistant and associate professor there from 1970 until his death. He was the Chair of the Department of Music at York from 1975-1982 and Associate Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts from 1985-1988. He is the author of the book "Music and Text in the Works of Arnold Schoenberg : The Critical Years, 1908-1922" as well as the author of numerous essays, articles and reviews that have appeared both in scholarly journals in published collections. In addition to his academic career, he was also an accomplished pianist, cellist and composer. He died on 10 October 1991 in Toronto.