159 Facts About Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian.

Leonard Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two feature films, as well as three symphonies, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", and Chichester Psalms, the original score for the Elia Kazan drama film On the Waterfront, and theater works including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and his Mass.

Leonard Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra.

Leonard Bernstein was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings.

Leonard Bernstein was a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most interested.

Leonard Bernstein shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic.

Leonard Bernstein conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of president John F Kennedy, and in Israel at a concert, Hatikvah on Mt.

Leonard Bernstein's grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard.

Leonard Bernstein's mother had moved to stay with her parents in Lawrence toward the end of her first pregnancy and, since he was sickly as an infant, he stayed there until he was strong enough to join his father in Boston, where he eventually attended the Boston Latin School.

When Leonard Bernstein was ten years old, Samuel's sister Clara deposited her upright piano at her brother's house.

Leonard Bernstein asked for lessons, and subsequently had a variety of piano teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary.

Leonard Bernstein's youngest sibling, Burton, was born in 1932,13 years after Leonard Bernstein.

Leonard Bernstein then took to giving lessons to young people in his neighborhood.

In May 1932, Leonard Bernstein attended his first orchestral concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler.

Leonard Bernstein was working as a music counselor at a summer camp when news came of Gershwin's death.

Leonard Bernstein interrupted lunch in the mess hall, and then played Gershwin's second Prelude as a memorial.

On March 30,1932, Leonard Bernstein played Brahms's Rhapsody in G minor at his first public piano performance in Susan Williams's studio recital at the New England Conservatory.

In 1935, Leonard Bernstein enrolled at Harvard College, where he studied music with, among others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston.

Leonard Bernstein majored in music with a final year thesis titled "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music".

Leonard Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes' play The Birds, performed in the original Greek.

Leonard Bernstein mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock, directing its action from the piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the infamous premiere.

In 1937, Leonard Bernstein sat next to Aaron Copland at a dance recital at Town Hall in New York City.

At Curtis, Leonard Bernstein studied conducting with Fritz Reiner ; piano with Isabelle Vengerova; orchestration with Randall Thompson; counterpoint with Richard Stohr; and score reading with Renee Longy Miquelle.

In 1940, Leonard Bernstein attended the inaugural year of the Tanglewood Music Center at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home.

Leonard Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO's music director, Serge Koussevitzky, who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Leonard Bernstein.

Leonard Bernstein became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood and later dedicated his Symphony No 2: The Age of Anxiety to his beloved mentor.

Leonard Bernstein returned to Tanglewood nearly every summer for the rest of his life to teach and conduct the young music students.

Leonard Bernstein received a diploma in conducting from Curtis in 1941.

Leonard Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers, teaching piano, and playing the piano for dance classes in Carnegie Hall.

Leonard Bernstein found work with Harms-Witmark, transcribing jazz and pop music and publishing his work under the pseudonym "Lenny Amber".

Leonard Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with his friend Adolph Green.

On January 28,1944, Leonard Bernstein conducted the premiere of his Symphony No 1: Jeremiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and soloist Jennie Tourel.

Only part of Leonard Bernstein's score was used in the film and additional songs were provided by Roger Edens.

From 1945 to 1947, Leonard Bernstein was the music director of the New York City Symphony, which had been founded the previous year by the conductor Leopold Stokowski.

In 1946, Leonard Bernstein made his overseas debut with the Czech Philharmonic at the inaugural Prague Spring International Music Festival.

Leonard Bernstein recorded Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major as soloist and conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

On July 4,1946, Leonard Bernstein conducted the European premiere of Fancy Free with the Ballet Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London.

In 1947, Leonard Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, then known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.

On December 10,1949, Leonard Bernstein made his first television appearance as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

On December 2,1949, Leonard Bernstein conducted the world premiere of the Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York premiere in Carnegie Hall on the afternoon of December 10.

When Koussevitzky died in 1951, Leonard Bernstein became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood.

Leonard Bernstein created five new works for the Broadway stage, composed several symphonic works and an iconic film score, and was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic with whom he toured the world, including concerts behind the Iron Curtain.

Leonard Bernstein harnessed the power of television to expand his educational reach, and he married and started a family.

In 1951, Leonard Bernstein composed Trouble in Tahiti, a one-act opera in seven scenes with an English libretto by the composer.

Ironically, Leonard Bernstein wrote most of the opera while on his honeymoon in Mexico with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.

Leonard Bernstein was a visiting music professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1956.

Three decades later, Leonard Bernstein wrote a second opera, A Quiet Place, which picked up the story and characters of Trouble in Tahiti in a later period.

In 1953, Bernstein wrote the score for the musical Wonderful Town on very short notice, with a book by Joseph A Fields and Jerome Chodorov and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The other musical Leonard Bernstein was writing simultaneously with Candide was West Side Story.

Leonard Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, book writer Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

In 1960, Leonard Bernstein prepared a suite of orchestral music from the show, titled Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide.

In 1953, Leonard Bernstein became the first American conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan, conducting Cherubini's Medea, with Maria Callas in the title role.

Callas and Leonard Bernstein reunited at La Scala to perform Bellini's La sonnambula in 1955.

On November 14,1954, Leonard Bernstein presented the first of his television lectures for the CBS Television Network arts program Omnibus.

The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", involved Leonard Bernstein explaining the symphony's first movement with the aid of musicians from the "Symphony of the Air".

Leonard Bernstein was appointed the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, sharing the post jointly with Dimitri Mitropoulos until he took sole charge in 1958.

Leonard Bernstein held the music directorship until 1969 when he was appointed "Laureate Conductor".

Leonard Bernstein continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life.

Leonard Bernstein's television teaching took a quantum leap when, as the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, he put the orchestra's traditional Saturday afternoon Young People's Concerts on the CBS Television Network.

The programs were shown in many countries around the world, often with Leonard Bernstein dubbed into other languages, and the concerts were later released on home video by Kultur Video.

Leonard Bernstein actively advocated for the commission and performance of works by contemporary composers, conducting over 40 world premieres by a diverse roster of composers ranging from John Cage to Alberto Ginastera to Luciano Berio.

Leonard Bernstein championed American composers, especially those with whom he had a close friendship, such as Aaron Copland, William Schuman, and David Diamond.

Leonard Bernstein welcomed the Philharmonic's additions of its first Black musician, Sanford Allen, and its second woman musician, Orin O'Brien.

Leonard Bernstein shared the Philharmonic's commitment to connecting with as many New Yorkers as possible.

Leonard Bernstein initiated the Philharmonic's informal Thursday Evening Preview Concerts, which included Leonard Bernstein's talks from the stage, a practice that was unheard of at the time.

In one oft-reported incident, on April 6,1962, Leonard Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor to explain that the soloist, Glenn Gould, had chosen an idiosyncratic approach to the work.

Leonard Bernstein explained that while he did not totally agree with it, he thought Gould's interpretation was an artistically worthy exploration.

That same year, Leonard Bernstein made his first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony.

Leonard Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert featuring works by Mahler, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams, as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations.

In 1964, Leonard Bernstein conducted at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Verdi's Falstaff.

In subsequent years, Leonard Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct Cavalleria rusticana and Carmen, as well as at the Centennial Gala in 1983.

In 1961, Bernstein composed and conducted a fanfare for President John F Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala.

On November 23,1963, the day after the assassination of President John F Kennedy, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Schola Cantorum of New York in a nationally televised memorial featuring the Mahler's Symphony No 2: "Resurrection".

Leonard Bernstein wrote the text of the narration himself; his wife, Felicia Montealegre, narrated the US premiere of the work.

In 1965, Leonard Bernstein took a sabbatical year from the New York Philharmonic to concentrate on composition, during which he composed Chichester Psalms.

In 1966, Leonard Bernstein began a lifelong rich relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducting concerts as well as making his debut at the Vienna State Opera in Luchino Visconti's production of Falstaff with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role.

Leonard Bernstein was largely responsible for restoring the works of Mahler to the Vienna Philharmonic's core repertoire.

Leonard Bernstein returned to the State Opera in 1968 for a production of Der Rosenkavalier and in 1970 for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's Fidelio.

In 1966, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis commissioned Bernstein to compose a work for the inauguration of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, Bernstein began writing Mass in 1969 as a large-scale theatrical work based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church, and in 1971, Bernstein invited the young composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had recently opened the musical Godspell off-Broadway, to collaborate as co-lyricist.

Leonard Bernstein's score combines elements of musical theater, jazz, gospel, blues, folk, rock, and symphonic music, and the libretto combines Latin and English liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and additional lyrics written by Leonard Bernstein and Schwartz.

Leonard Bernstein provided musical examples from the piano, and pre-recorded musical works with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

On July 4,1985, Leonard Bernstein conducted a nationally televised performance of Songfest as part of the National Symphony's annual A Capitol Fourth concert.

In 1972, Leonard Bernstein recorded Bizet's Carmen, with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera at the Metropolitan Opera.

In working with Unitel and Deutsche Grammophon, Leonard Bernstein made a host of video and audio recordings with such orchestras as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France.

In 1970, Leonard Bernstein wrote and narrated "Leonard Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna," an in-depth exploration of Beethoven on the composer's 200th birthday, filmed on location in and around Vienna.

In 1979, Leonard Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first and only time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International featuring performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, recorded live on Deutsche Grammophon.

Leonard Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985, France's Legion of Honour in 1985, and Japan's Praemium Imperiale in 1990, among others.

Leonard Bernstein continued his longtime relationship with Tanglewood to the end of his life, including a lavish televised gala in 1988 to celebrate his 70th birthday, as well as his final concert performance in August 1990.

In 1983, Leonard Bernstein wrote a new opera, A Quiet Place, with a libretto by Stephen Wadsworth.

In 1986, Leonard Bernstein himself conducted and recorded the work at the Vienna State Opera.

In Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein recorded works including Wagner's Tristan und Isolde; Haydn's Creation; and Mozart's Requiem and Great Mass in C minor.

In Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leonard Bernstein recorded works by Debussy, as well as Puccini's La boheme, featuring an all-American cast.

In December 1989, Leonard Bernstein conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in his operetta Candide and subsequently recorded the work at Abbey Road Studios.

On December 25,1989, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No 9 in East Berlin's Konzerthaus as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Leonard Bernstein had conducted the same work in West Berlin the previous day.

Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert on August 19,1990, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

Leonard Bernstein led Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Beethoven's Symphony No 7.

However, poor health prevented Leonard Bernstein from preparing it, and Tanglewood Conducting Fellow Carl St Clair was engaged to conduct the work in his stead.

Leonard Bernstein suffered a coughing fit during the third movement of the Beethoven, but continued to conduct the piece to its conclusion, leaving the stage during the ovation, appearing exhausted and in pain.

In 1984, Leonard Bernstein conducted a Deutsche Grammophon recording of West Side Story, his only recording of the entire work.

Leonard Bernstein's nurturing experience at the Tanglewood Music Festival inspired him to use his international influence to recreate that environment for young musicians in the final years of his life.

Leonard Bernstein gave a master class inside the castle of Fontainebleau.

Leonard Bernstein served as artistic co-director and taught conducting classes for two summers.

In May 1986, Leonard Bernstein conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for the inaugural concert of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, in a performance of Haydn's Die Schopfung.

Leonard Bernstein returned the following year when he founded the festival's Orchestra Academy, recreating the nurturing atmosphere of Bernstein's Tanglewood experience.

Over three summers, Leonard Bernstein took the students on international tours to Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union.

In 1990, Leonard Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize awarded by the Japan Arts Association for lifetime achievement in the arts.

Leonard Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Leonard Bernstein Education Through the Arts Fund.

Leonard Bernstein provided this grant to develop an arts-based education program.

The Leonard Bernstein Center was posthumously established in April 1992, and initiated extensive school-based research, ultimately leading to the current Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program.

Leonard Bernstein had asthma, and the condition kept him from serving in the military during World War II.

Leonard Bernstein married actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn on September 9,1951.

The Leonard Bernstein family lived in New York City and Fairfield, Connecticut, and maintained a close-knit atmosphere surrounded by extended family and friends.

Leonard Bernstein had a studio with a piano in each of his dwellings.

In 1976, Leonard Bernstein left Felicia for a period to live in Northern California with Tom Cothran, a music scholar who had assisted him on research for the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures that Leonard Bernstein delivered at Harvard.

Leonard Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until her death on June 16,1978.

Leonard Bernstein continued to have relationships with men until his death on October 14,1990.

When he was not composing and conducting, Leonard Bernstein enjoyed skiing, playing tennis, and engaging in all manner of word games, especially anagrams.

Leonard Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9,1990.

Leonard Bernstein died five days later at the age of 72, in his New York apartment at The Dakota, of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma.

Leonard Bernstein is buried near the summit of Battle Hill at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, next to his wife and with a copy of the score of Mahler's Fifth Symphony lying across his heart.

Leonard Bernstein sought to make music both intelligible and enjoyable to all.

Since earliest adulthood, Leonard Bernstein was committed to furthering social change and making the world a better place.

Leonard Bernstein expressed his support of civil rights in the United States in numerous ways.

On March 24,1965, at the invitation of Harry Belafonte, Leonard Bernstein participated in the Stars for Freedom Rally, a star-studded performance in support of the marchers heading from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.

On January 19,1973, Leonard Bernstein conducted members of the National Symphony Orchestra in a "Concert of Peace" at the Washington National Cathedral.

Leonard Bernstein played a key role in the release of renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich from the USSR in 1974.

Leonard Bernstein was a committed and outspoken supporter of nuclear disarmament.

On November 8,1987, Leonard Bernstein participated in another event to benefit the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

Leonard Bernstein was joined by Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, and Yo-Yo Ma, among others.

Leonard Bernstein funded a variety of fellowships, funds, and scholarships including ones at the Tanglewood Music Center, Jacobs School of Music, Brandeis University, and the ASCAP Foundation.

Leonard Bernstein had a lifelong interest in integrating the arts into general education.

When he won the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale award in 1990, Leonard Bernstein used the $100,000 prize money to initiate a project in Nashville, Tennessee that would eventually lead to the current nationwide teaching model known as Artful Learning.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the most important conductors of the 20th century.

Leonard Bernstein was held in high regard by musicians around the world, including the members of the New York Philharmonic, which he led for eleven seasons; the Vienna Philharmonic, where he received an honorary membership; the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted principally at Tanglewood for over 50 years; the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was president; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he appeared regularly as their guest conductor.

In 1943, Leonard Bernstein's last-minute conducting debut in Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic, which was broadcast live nationwide, caused him to become famous overnight.

Leonard Bernstein soon became the first American-born, American-trained conductor to achieve international status, at a time when conductors traditionally came from Europe.

Leonard Bernstein's conducting was characterized by his physically expressive podium manner.

Leonard Bernstein performed a wide classical music repertoire from the Baroque era to the music of his time.

Leonard Bernstein conducted and recorded definitive interpretations of works by traditional composers such as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky; championed music by lesser known composers such as Mahler, Sibelius, and Nielsen; and advocated modern composers such as Stravinsky, Hindemith, Shostakovich, and Ligeti.

Leonard Bernstein programmed American composers everywhere in the world that he conducted, sharing the music of Gershwin, Copland, and Ives.

Leonard Bernstein expanded the definitions of the genres that could be included in the concert hall by programming jazz, musical theater, and works from Latin America.

Leonard Bernstein wove together elements of classical, jazz, popular, Broadway, Latin, Jewish music, and more to create a musical fabric uniquely his own.

Leonard Bernstein occasionally turned to Christian sources as well, for example in his Missa Brevis and his theatre work MASS.

Leonard Bernstein himself said that virtually all his compositions "could in some sense be thought of as 'theatre' pieces".

Choreographers of Leonard Bernstein's music include Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, John Neumeier, Alexei Ratmansky, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Larry Keigwin, and Justin Peck.

Leonard Bernstein received additional criticism for his theatre work MASS, which some members of the Catholic Church considered offensive.

The work's thinly veiled antiwar stance was enough to prevent President Richard Nixon from attending the premiere at the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC While his eclecticism, as well as his fearlessness in taking on social issues, generated controversy in his lifetime, Leonard Bernstein is considered a hero and role model for the next generation of composers.

In 2018, his centennial year, Leonard Bernstein was the third-most played composer worldwide for the year, alongside Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and Brahms.

Between 1945 and 1950, Leonard Bernstein recorded a variety of works for RCA Victor, primarily consisting of his own compositions and those of other American composers.

Between 1956 and 1979, Leonard Bernstein recorded over 500 compositions for Columbia, 455 of which were recorded with the New York Philharmonic.

Between 1997 and 2001, Sony issued the "Leonard Bernstein Century" series, which was a combination of new re-releases and items from the "Royal Edition".

In 1972, Leonard Bernstein made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon: Bizet's Carmen.

On October 17,1976, Leonard Bernstein made his first live recording on Deutsche Grammophon, leading to a 14-year collaboration until his death in 1990.

The vast majority of the DG recordings were of live performances, which had become Leonard Bernstein's preferred approach to recording.

In total, Leonard Bernstein received 63 Grammy Award nominations and was awarded 16 Grammys in various categories, including for posthumously released recordings.

Leonard Bernstein was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1985.

Leonard Bernstein is a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame and the Television Hall of Fame.

In 1998, Leonard Bernstein was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.