A musical Renaissance man, Saul Lilienstein has had a storied career as a musician, music historian, opera and choral director, conductor, professor, and writer about music. For the past several years, he has transformed his deep knowledge and broad experience into a series of phenomenally popular courses, ranging from opera to jazz, Bach to the Beatles, at the Smithsonian Institution, the Levine School of Music, and many other educational settings. His commentaries for symphonic concerts at the Kennedy Center and for The Washington National Opera (WNO) are legendary, and his highly acclaimed set of 85 CDs for WNO analyzing the opera repertoire remains the most extensive series of its kind in the English language. A former student of Leonard Bernstein, Lilienstein holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in music from Queens College, NY.