Editing Aaron Copland (section)

=== Early years ===
[[File:Aaron Copland School of Music (541691170).jpg|thumb|Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College (part of the [[City University of New York]])]]
Aaron Copland was born in [[Brooklyn]], New York, on November 14, 1900.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=15}} He was the youngest of five children in a [[Conservative Jewish]] immigrant family of [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian]] origin.{{sfn|Copland|Perlis|1984|p=19}} While emigrating from Russia to the United States, Copland's father, Harris Morris Copland, lived and worked in Scotland for two to three years to pay for his boat fare to the United States. It was there that Copland's father may have [[Anglicized]] his surname "Kaplan" to "Copland", though Copland himself believed for many years that the change had been caused by an [[Ellis Island]] immigration official when his father entered the country.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=15}}<ref name=Cone>{{harvnb|Cone|Copland|1968}}</ref> Copland was unaware until late in his life that the family name had been Kaplan, his parents having never told him.<ref name=Cone /> Throughout his childhood, Copland and his family lived above his parents' Brooklyn shop, H. M. Copland's, at 628 Washington Avenue (which Aaron later called "a kind of neighborhood [[Macy's]]"),{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=16}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Paton |first=David W. |title=1905 State of New York Census. Ninth Election District, Block "D", Eleventh Assembly District, Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings |page=36 |date=July 1, 1905}}</ref> on the corner of Dean Street and Washington Avenue,{{sfn|Ross|2007|p=266}} and most of the children helped out in the store. His father was a staunch Democrat. The family members were active in [[Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes]], where Aaron celebrated his [[bar mitzvah]].{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=26}} Not especially athletic, the sensitive young man became an avid reader and often read [[Horatio Alger]] stories on his front steps.{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=15}}

Copland's father had no musical interest. His mother, Sarah Mittenthal Copland, sang, played the piano, and arranged music lessons for her children.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=19}} Copland had four older siblings: two brothers, Ralph and Leon, and two sisters, Laurine and Josephine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aaron Copland / Timeline // Copland House ...where America's musical past and future meet|url=http://www.coplandhouse.org/aaron-copland/timeline/|access-date=February 13, 2022|website=coplandhouse.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Aaron Copland – Composer Biography, Facts and Music Compositions|url=https://www.famouscomposers.net/aaron-copland|access-date=February 13, 2022|website=Famous Composers}}</ref> Of his siblings, his oldest brother Ralph was the most advanced musically; he was proficient on the violin. Laurine had the strongest connection with Aaron; she gave him his first piano lessons, promoted his musical education, and supported him in his musical career.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=19}} A student at the Metropolitan Opera School and frequent opera-goer, Laurine also brought home [[libretti]] for Aaron to study.{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=17}} Copland attended [[Boys High School (Brooklyn)|Boys High School]] and in the summer went to various camps. Most of his early exposure to music was at Jewish weddings and ceremonies, and occasional family musicales.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=26}}

Copland began writing songs at the age of eight and a half.{{sfn|Copland|Perlis|1984|p=22}} His earliest notated music, about seven bars he wrote when age 11, was for an opera scenario he created and called ''Zenatello''.{{sfn|Copland|Perlis|1984|p=22}}{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=32}} From 1913 to 1917 he took piano lessons with Leopold Wolfsohn, who taught him the standard classical fare.{{sfn|Copland|Perlis|1984|p=22}} Copland's first public music performance was at a [[Wanamaker's]] recital.{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=18}}{{sfn|Copland|Perlis|1984|p=23}} By age 15, after attending a concert by Polish composer-pianist [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]], Copland decided to become a composer.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=33}} At 16, he heard his first symphony, at the [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]].<ref name="nyclgbtsites.org">{{Cite web|title=Aaron Copland Residence at the Hotel Empire|url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/aaron-copland-residence/|access-date=July 12, 2021|website=NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project}}</ref> After attempts to further his music study from a [[correspondence course]], Copland took formal lessons in [[harmony]], [[music theory|theory]], and [[Musical composition|composition]] from [[Rubin Goldmark]], a noted teacher and composer of American music (who had given [[George Gershwin]] three lessons). Goldmark, with whom Copland studied between 1917 and 1921, gave the young Copland a solid foundation, especially in the Germanic tradition.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=34}} As Copland later said: "This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching."{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=23}} But Copland also said that Goldmark had "little sympathy for the advanced musical idioms of the day" and his "approved" composers ended with [[Richard Strauss]].{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=35}}

Copland's graduation piece from his studies with Goldmark was a three-movement piano sonata in a [[Romantic music|Romantic]] style.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=36}} But he had also composed more original and daring pieces that he did not share with his teacher.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=37}} In addition to regularly attending the [[Metropolitan Opera]] and the [[New York Symphony]], where he heard the standard classical repertory, Copland continued his musical development through an expanding circle of musical friends. After graduating from high school, he played in dance bands.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=39}} Continuing his musical education, he received further piano lessons from Victor Wittgenstein, who found him "quiet, shy, well-mannered, and gracious in accepting criticism."{{sfn|Smith|1953|pp=25, 31}} Copland's fascination with the [[October Revolution|Russian Revolution]] and its promise for freeing the lower classes drew a rebuke from his father and uncles.{{sfn|Smith|1953|p=30}} In spite of that, in his early adult life, Copland developed friendships with people who had socialist and communist leanings.{{sfn|Pollack|1999|p=237}}