The youngest of 5 children, Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was born in Brooklyn to parents who owned Copland’s Dept. Store on Washington Ave. The whole family worked in the store, including young Aaron who operated the cash register as soon as he was able. He is quoted as remembering how this taught him responsibility, trust, and the value of hard work.  His father was a Russian immigrant but his mother, Sarah Mittenthal, grew up in Texas. Her parents ran a successful dry goods business there but when Frank James, Jesse’s brother, held them up, they closed shop and moved to the Lower East Side. Sarah grew up among cowboys, Indians, and immigrants until she was 19, and would often sing Western folk songs to her youngest child. Perhaps these memories informed Copland’s well known compositions such as ‘Rodeo’, ‘Billy the Kid’, and ‘Appalachian Spring’ though there is no record of his attesting to this.  Copland was committed to promoting the “American sound” in classical music and he worked tirelessly to bring it to the world stage, which he was more than successful in accomplishing.

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