Ernst Levy

Who was Ernst Levy?

Ernst Levy was a Swiss musicologist, composer, pianist and conductor.

He studied with Egon Petri and Raoul Pugno. David Dubal describes him as an "unusual and powerful pianist" who made "grandly conceived" recordings of the late Beethoven sonatas and captured "the very essence of the Faustian Liszt". His work as a musicologist and teacher brought him to the United States, where he taught at colleges including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and the New England Conservatory; he also became a United States citizen. In 1966 he retired from academia and returned to his native Switzerland where he spent the remainder of his life.

Levy's son is composer and cellist Frank Ezra Levy.