Dr. David LeVita, a pianist, conductor and musicologist.
As curator of music at the Brooklyn Museum from 1942 to l972, he presented weekly lectures on music to school children and created the museum’s children’s concert series, where he served as both orchestral conductor and lecturer. He presented classical music as a relevant, exciting and entertaining medium of artistic expression, often demonstrating his thoughts with humor and imagination, and this was enjoyed enthusiastically by the children and adults in his audience. He also initiated the museum’s Sunday afternoon concerts and the “meet the composer” series, where, in a more traditional manner, he interviewed such notables as Bela Bartok.
Dr. Le Vita made his debut as a concert pianist in Aeolian Hall in 1923. He graduated from Leipzig Conservatory in 1929 and received his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Leipzig University in 1931. He began his career as a solo pianist, accompanist and chamber music player and later was director of the piano department at the Henry Street Settlement Music School and director of the Prospect Plaza Music Center in Brooklyn.