Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1930, JACK GOTTLIEB'S first instrument was the clarinet, after which, as a teenager, he taught himself to play the piano and then took formal lessons with Rebecca Davis in New York. He was inspired initially to compose by Max Helfman, one of the seminal personalities on the American Jewish music scene, especially during his summer experiences at the Brandeis Camp Institute in California. Gottlieb studied composition subsequently with Karol Rathaus (Queens College), Irving Fine (Brandeis University), and Robert Palmer and Burrill Phillips (University of Illinois), as well as with Aaron Copland and Boris Blacher at Tanglewood. Among his works are large-scale concert pieces, chamber music, musical stage works, many songs in both art and popular style, and much synagogue music. He is also the author of Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced American Popular Music (S.U.N.Y. Press, 2003).
Recognized as a leading scholar on Leonard Bernstein's music, Gottlieb was Bernstein's assistant at the New York Philharmonic until 1966 and later became publications director of Amberson Enterprises, which manages the Bernstein musical legacy. He was the editor of Bernstein's books, including Young People's Concerts, as well as his published scores and recordings, and currently he is an editor of the Bernstein newsletter, Prelude, Fugue and Riffs. For several years Gottlieb was also a professor of music at the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in New York.
