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Walter Arlen (n\u00e9 Aptowitzer) was born in Vienna in 1920. His family ran a department store with apartments on the top floor, allowing for a designated piano room. In 1938, the Jewish family was dispossessed by the Nazis; his father was deported, then released before immigrating to Great Britain with Walter Arlen’s mother and sister. Walter Arlen arrived in America still named Walter Aptowitzer before changing to Arlen upon his arrival in Chicago. He had been unable to finish high school or study music in Vienna. During his first years in the USA, Arlen had no piano and he became depressed at his inability to express himself. Arlen ultimately managed a scholarship to study with Leo Sowby, one of America\u2019s leading composers before winning an opportunity to live and work with Roy Harris as amanuensis. For over 30 years, he was the music critic of the Los Angeles Times<\/em> and founder and head of the Music Department at Loyola Marymount University. Arlen composed as a form of therapy and wrote solely for the gratification of his inner ear as he attempted to come to terms with his loss of language, homeland and come to terms with his new life in America. After his retirement, he enriched his oeuvre with many songs and piano compositions, subsequently recorded by exil.arte \u2013 later renamed the Exilarte Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna for the Gramola label. More recently, his oratorio The Song of Songs <\/em>has been released on the British Signum label. In 2011 he handed over his musical estate to the Vienna City Library, before the founding of the professional archive at the mdw\u2019s Exilarte Research Center. He nevertheless transferred the rights to his works to the Exilarte Centre. Walter Arlen died in 2023 at the age of 103 in Santa Monica, California. He is buried at Vienna\u2019s Central Cemetery. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"