Annabelle Leviton
August 21, 1923 - January 9, 2022
Annabelle Leviton, age 98, of Albuquerque, passed away peacefully on January 9, 2022, with family by her side. Born in Gary, Indiana, she spent most of her adult life in Evanston, Illinois, until she moved to New Mexico in her seventies to be closer to family. Her rich life story begins with her father, Bernard Shrago, who, with his violin, a pocketful of rubles, and a slim volume of Pushkin poetry, left the Ukraine for the Midwest steel town of Gary, Indiana, where he met kindred spirit and music lover, Sarah Harris, an immigrant from Lithuania. They had two children, Annabelle and Melvin. Throughout her life, Annabelle loved her younger brother with his winning smile.
Precociously talented, but sometimes averse to practicing, young Annabelle ruined an upside-down cake when she secretly turned the clock forward to cut short her piano practice. Nevertheless, she was still able to perform a Beethoven Concerto with an orchestra at the age of ten. She was a voracious reader, and often hid herself away from family events to spend time with her books. In high school, she took on anything and everything. She swam on the swim team, played field hockey, was one of the only girls in physics class, sang Katisha in the Mikado and the Habanêra from Carmen in opera productions, and played the clarinet on the Capitol steps on a band trip to Washington, D.C. She did well in school, in spite of always be being pulled out to accompany school choirs and graduations, and Gary civic events. She learned the entire Great American Songbook, and throughout her entire life, could offer up any of a hundred songs on cue. She could play the French horn, harp, and clarinet when needed.
As a freshman at Northwestern University, she soloed with the University orchestra. She earned her undergraduate degree in composition from Northwestern, and a Masters degree of composition from the Eastman School of Music. She also got a teaching degree because her father believed all women should be able to independently support themselves. She met fellow pianist, Julian Leviton, in Chicago at a piano competition. They married and became a successful two-piano team, concertizing in the U.S. and Europe.
She often said she found her greatest joy in life being a mother to her two children, Lawrence Leviton and Barbara Leviton. As a young mother, she ran a preschool in the backyard, loved hosting children’s parties, used innovative editing techniques to create comical home movies, sewed dresses for Barbara, and a tiny couture wardrobe for Barbara’s Barbie Doll.
She was a busy working mom, but nevertheless kept her piano studio humming, even with toddlers crawling over piano pedals, and adroitly handled all the challenges of daily life. She was a transport captain, shuttling her son from from Hebrew School to baseball games to a cello lesson, often on the same day. She was nonplussed about the pockmarks that hockey pucks left in hallway walls, and took it in stride when a cello became a casualty from an errant snowball in the schoolyard, and her home was always the place family and family friends would send their teenagers for loving respite.
Family life often revolved around music. Annabelle and Julian taught at the Hull House Music and Arts Camp in Wisconsin where Lawrence and Barbara were campers. Annabelle, Julian and Barbara performed the Mozart Triple Piano Concerto at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra. The entire family gave a chamber music recital at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where her son was the Professor of Cello and taught courses in film music. Annabelle and Lawrence performed together at a film music symposium at the University of New Mexico.
As an empty nester, she took doctoral classes at Northwestern University and Roosevelt University, where she studied electronic music composition. In addition to her home studio, she also served on the faculties at Kendall College in Evanston, and the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka, Illinois. She was always looking for enrichment opportunities in her piano studio, integrating new musical technologies, and the study of theory and composition. On one occasion, she brought together an entire orchestra to give her adult students the unique opportunity to play piano concerti with an orchestra.
Outside of music, she was open to new adventures. She crewed on a sailing schooner and traveled to see her parents’ homelands in Eastern Europe. She embarked on another career, undertaking advanced studies in graphoanalysis which she used to study Mozart’s letters and manuscripts in museums throughout Europe. She worked as a music editor for a major music publishing company, and was a music production consultant for a television program in Chicago.
At age 70, she moved from Evanston, Illinois, to Corrales, New Mexico, and became part of a new community. She set up a new music studio in Corrales and became a member of the Corrales Cultural Counsel. Most important, she was there every day when her beloved grandson, Sam, came over to visit after school, and over the years, they developed a special relationship and were kindred spirits. In latter years, her son-in-law, Kenneth Hodder, became her skilled chef and helper, and graciously stepped in whenever needed. She loved her daughter-in-law, Pamela Leviton, and her grandson’s partner, Martina.
Both as a mother and teacher, Annabelle guided everyone with a gentle hand. She had an intuitive understanding of human nature, knowing how to find the best in people, both musically and in life. In spite of her individual talents and accomplishments, her greatest joy was that of nurturing the lives of others. She was loved and respected and will be greatly missed by her family and friends. Donations in her honor can made to Doctors Without Borders, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, or the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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