Biography of Leonard Bernstein

American Conductor and Composer, also Pianist, Teacher, Author

© Tel Asiado

Leonard Bernstein, www.karadar.com

Life and works of Leonard Bernstein - consummate musician, one of 20th century's most celebrated conductors, and famous for creation of "West Side Story".

American Leonard Bernstein, (1918-1990), was a renowned conductor, composer and pianist, famous for the musical West Side Story and opera Candide. His most popular stage works are ballets and musicals.

Energetic and versatile, perhaps, Bernstein was more influential as a conductor than as a composer as he drew tremendous audiences around the world. He was an eclectic composer with his inspired influences coming from many different sources - from his fellow American composers Gershwin and Copland, from Mahler and Stravinsky, exciting idea of concert jazz, and just about anything.

Early Life: Musical Training

Leonard Bernstein was born on 25 August 1918, in Lawrence Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Harvard University with Walter Piston and at Curtis Institute.

The Conductor: Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras

In 1944, aged 26, he made his reputation as a conductor as a replacement when Bruno Walter became ill, after which he was associated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as musical director, soon achieving an international reputation. He conducted in Vienna and La Scala, Milan, the first American to conduct there.

The Composer: American Stage and Screen Musicals

Among other compositions, Bernstein wrote two of the greatest of all American stage and screen musicals, On the Town and West Side Story, which is Shakespeare's classic story Romeo and Juliet transferred to the contemporary New York life.

In more personal level, Bernstein was also an author (e.g., The Joy of Music), teacher, spellbinding broadcaster on radio and television, simply, a talented communicator.

Bernstein's Works

His works, which established a more realistic, contemporary themes, include symphonies such as The Age of Anxiety, ballets such as Fancy Free, and scores for musicals, including Wonderful Town, West Side Story, and Mass in memory of President John F Kennedy. Other works are symphony Jeremiah, the ballet Facsimile, and the musicals Candide and the Chichester Psalms.

Symphonies

Opera

Ballets

Scores for musicals

Film Music

The Musical Director

From 1958 to 1970, he was musical director of the New York Philharmonic.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the most attractive, entertaining, and creative minds of the 20th century.

Link:

Leonard Bernstein Official Site

Sources:

The Encyclopedia of Music by Max Wade-Matthews & Wendy Thompson, Hermes House (2002)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)

The Oxford Companion to Music, Edited by Alison Latham, OUP (2002)

The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Edited by Michael Kennedy, OUP (1994)


The copyright of the article Biography of Leonard Bernstein in Classical Composers is owned by Tel Asiado. Permission to republish Biography of Leonard Bernstein must be granted by the author in writing.


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