Associated Students, University of California, Los Angeles · Public domain

A composer, pianist, and conductor who fled Berlin with his family in 1933 as the Nazis rose to power, eventually settling in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1942. He replaced Arnold Schoenberg on the UCLA faculty in 1953, founded an improvisation ensemble that premiered his Time Cycle under Leonard Bernstein's baton, and went on to lead the Buffalo, Brooklyn, Jerusalem, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras. He received a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000.