Marc Blitzstein

Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964), American composer, known for his works expressing concern over the social injustices of his time. Born in Philadelphia, he appeared as pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 15. He later studied with the influential French teacher Nadia Boulanger and the Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg. In his opera Regina (1949), based on the play The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, he integrates into his own style elements of jazz, blues, popular music, and US folk hymnody, creating a work of great dramatic impact. His other works include the operas The Cradle Will Rock (1937) and No for an Answer (1941) and an English adaption of the libretto by German poet and playwright Bertholt Brecht for The Threepenny Opera, by the German-American composer Kurt Weill.