Osias Wilenski

Osias Wilenski was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From an early age he studied piano with Professor Vicente Scaramuzza and harmony, counterpoint and composition with Dr. Erwin Leuchter, who had been a pupil of Alban Berg. From Leuchter comes his early interest in 12-tone music, a system that Wilenski has abandoned since. During the 1950s and through the suggestion of pianist Arturo Rubinstein, Wilenski won a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he resided for several years. There he studied composition with William Bergsma, William Schuman and Vincent Persichetti. He also had private piano lessons from virtuoso Simon Barere, of which he was the only pupil. He started a solo pianist career and played concerts in New York in Hunter College and Town Hall.

When back in Argentina, Wilenski continued his piano tours, but later, in l960, suddenly abandoned music to dedicate to the cinema and television. During that period, he directed several short films. In 1960, “Moto Perpetuo” won first prize at the Mar del Plata film festival. In 1966, “Ramon Gomez de la Serna”, a short about the house of the famous Spanish writer, won the short film prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Wilenski also directed two feature films, the l962 film “El Perseguidor”, based on a short story by Julio Cortazar and “Dale Nomás” (l966) a film in sketches by several Argentinean writers.