Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, and writer. He is known as one of the most important conductors of the 1900's. Music critic Donal Henahan called him "one of the most talented and successful musicians in American history."  Bernstein won a lot of awards, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, 16 Grammy Awards. He also the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.

As a composer, Bernstein wrote many different kinds of music. He created music for orchestras, ballets, movies, and theater. His most famous work is the Broadway musical West Side Story, which was made into a movie in 1961 and 2021. Some of his other works include On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and Mass (1971). He also wrote music for the movie On the Waterfront (1954), three symphonies, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" (1954), and Chichester Psalms (1965). 

Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra. He was the music director of the New York Philharmonic and worked with many of the world's best orchestras. He recorded many performances, and his recordings are still important today. He helped bring back the music of composer Gustav Mahler, which he loved. He also played the piano and sometimes conducted while playing piano concertos. On television, Bernstein introduced classical music to millions of people through his Young People's Concerts.

Bernstein cared about social issues and human rights. He supported civil rights, protested the Vietnam War, and raised money for AIDS research. He also worked for nuclear disarmament and world peace. After President John F. Kennedy was killed, Bernstein conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to honor him. In 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Although he had a wife, scholars agree that Bernstein was gay. He was a heavy smoker who had emphysema. He died of a heart attack in New York City.

 Early life and education 

 1918–1935: Early life and family 
Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His parents, Jennie and Samuel Bernstein, were Jewish immigrants from Rivne, in what used to be the Russian Empire, but is now Ukraine. When he was born, his grandmother wanted him to be named Louis, so that became his official name. However, his parents called him Leonard. When he was 16 years old, he legally changed his name from Louis to Leonard. Many people, including his friends, called him "Lenny."

Bernstein’s mother gave birth to him while she was staying with her parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts. As a baby, he was not very healthy, so he stayed there until he became strong enough to join his father in Boston. Later, he attended Boston Latin School. When Bernstein was 15, his family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, which is close to Boston.

Bernstein’s father owned the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company, which sold machines for permanent hair waving in the 1920s and 1930s. This business made the family wealthy.

As a child, Bernstein’s only experience with music was listening to the radio and attending Friday night services at Congregation Mishkan Tefila (a Jewish synagogue) in Roxbury, Massachusetts. When Bernstein was 10, his aunt Clara gave her piano to the Bernsteins. Leonard was very interested and asked for piano lessons. He had several piano teachers as a child, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary.

During summers, the Bernstein family stayed in Sharon, Massachusetts. There, young Leonard organized neighborhood children to perform operas and musicals, such as Carmen and H.M.S. Pinafore. He often played music with his younger sister, Shirley. Leonard also had a younger brother, Burton, who was born 13 years after him. Despite the age differences, the siblings were very close.

Bernstein's father, Samuel, did not support Leonard’s interest in music at first. He refused to pay for piano lessons, so Leonard taught piano to neighborhood children to earn money. One of his students, Sid Ramin, became a lifelong friend and later worked with Bernstein to orchestrate West Side Story. Eventually, Samuel began to support Leonard’s love for music and even took him to concerts.

In 1932, at the age of 14, Leonard went to his first orchestral concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra, led by Arthur Fiedler. He was deeply inspired, especially by the performance of Ravel’s Boléro. Later, George Gershwin also became a big influence. When Gershwin died in 1937, Bernstein played a piece of Gershwin’s music at a summer camp where he worked as a music counselor as a memorial (a way to show respect and remember someone).

Bernstein performed publicly for the first time on March 30, 1932, playing Brahms’s Rhapsody in G Minor at a recital. Two years later, performed for the first time with an orchestra, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Boston Public School Orchestra.

Bernstein attended public schools, starting with the William Lloyd Garrison School and then the Boston Latin School. At Boston Latin, he wrote the Class Song with his classmate Lawrence F. Ebb.

 1935-1941 College Years 
In 1935, Bernstein studied music at Harvard.There, he met Aaron Copland. He graduated in 1939, cum laude.

Next, Bernstein studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. During this time, he studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bernstein graduated with a diploma in conducting from Curtis in 1941.

 New York Philharmonic 
In September of 1943, Bernstein became the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He was 25 years old. This is very young for the job. On November 19, 1943,  Bruno Walter, was sick and couldn't conduct. Bernstein then conducted the New York Philharmonic without practicing first. 

His first concert was very well liked. The next day, it was the front page story in the New York Times. Many other newspapers across the country published the story. The concert was broadcast on the radio. He became famous. He became the first American-born, American-trained conductor to be internationally famous. This was during time when conductors traditionally came from Europe.

 Influences 
Bernstein stated that composers like Aaron Copland, Dimitri Mitropoulos, George Gershwin, Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Sergei Koussevitzky, Randall Thompson, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Robert Schumann were his influences.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Official website

Category:1918 births
Category:1990 deaths
Category:20th-century American composers
Category:American conductors
Category:American movie score composers
Category:Bisexual Jews
Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction
Category:Entertainers from Massachusetts
Category:American Grammy Award winners
Category:Jewish American LGBT people
Category:Jewish American musicians
Category:Kennedy Center honorees
Category:LGBT musicians
Category:LGBT people from Massachusetts
Category:People from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Category:Tony Award winners