The Conservatoire Américain

Americans seeking specialized training in composition or performance had to go to Europe to find it, primarily to Germany until World War I made that impossible. The Paris Conservatoire provided the desired training, but generally was not open to foreigners, so a conservatory especially for Americans was established that paralleled and often drew instructors from the Paris Conservatoire. Many now well known composers and performers attended. Leonard, a music scholar specializing in international exchange and women in music, traces the history of the institution from its founding in 1921 to the present. * Reference and Research Book News *
Kendra Preston Leonard has finally covered the famed Conservatoire Américain in the detail it deserves. We have known for years that many important American composers and musicians studied there, but the institution's complete history has never been told. Leonard covers it from its founding after World War I, through its high moments before World II, in exile in the United States, in Nadia Boulanger's long and controversial directorship, and in the difficult years following her death. Leonard explains why the Conservatoire Américain is now a shadow of what it once was and how it has changed in the face of the many other summer festivals and schools now available to students. This book is an important read for anyone interested in American music of the twentieth century, the training of American composers, and in music education in general. -- The University of Kansas, Paul Laird, Director of Musicology Division, The University of Kansas, author of Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research.
Solid scholarship is evident in The Conservatoire Americain: A History. Kendra Leonard provides the welcome documentation of an organization that dominated the training of American composers and musicians from its inception until World War II. -- Roberta Lindsey, Assistant professor and advisor, Music Concentration Program, Indiana University-Indianapolis
Recommended for large public and academic collections that specialize in music. * Library Journal *
Kendra Leonard's detailed historical study of the Conservatoire Americain provides the most thorough discussion to date of this important institution. It illuminates the triumphs, challenges, and strong personalities of the school's rocky history, expanding our understanding of an important chapter in Franco-American relations. -- E. Douglas Bomberger, Elizabethtown College
Recommended. * CHOICE *
compelling material * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
Leonard's informative and entertaining account of the history of the Conservatoire Americain is a fine record of its good and bad times, its triumphs and its failures. * Fontes Artis Musicae *
The book's narrative style is assured and lively....No lack of detail is spared in creating a vivid description of daily life at the institution throughout its history....Leonard has successfully and objectively described the portrait of an institution....Leonard's study is a formidable achievement that provides substantial insight into a long-neglected area of scholarship. * American Music *