November/December 2018
Leonard Bernstein
by Marilyn Lester
Leonard Bernstein—composer, conductor, author, lecturer, educator, and pianist—achieved monumental worldwide acclaim
during his lifetime. His legacy as a musical force includes recognition as one of America’s greatest composers.
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He wrote in many styles for different genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theater music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. He’s probably most well known for his long tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, his televised Young People’s Concerts, and as the composer of the musicals Candide, On the Town, Peter Pan, Wonderful Town, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and, most notably, West Side Story.
Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a well-to-do family of Ukrainian Jews.
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He began piano lessons at an early age and, after graduating from Boston Latin School in 1935, entered Harvard University. He majored in music, with a final-year thesis entitled The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music. At Harvard, Bernstein met the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos and composer Aaron Copland, both influential in his career development. After postgraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he moved to New York, working at various musical jobs and continuing his studies.
In true Hollywood fashion, Bernstein shot to fame in late 1943 when he, newly appointed as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, made his major conducting debut on short notice without any rehearsal. The flamboyant Bernstein was as much entertainer as he was a musician, and his appearances on the world stages and in television increased his popularity year-by-year.
As a composer, his themes ranged from the biblical and liturgical to jazz and Broadway. He received an Oscar nomination for scoring the film On the Waterfront. Mass, written with Stephen Schwartz, was commissioned for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1971.
Bernstein was also known for his outspoken political views and advocacy for social change. He was briefly blacklisted in the early 1950s for his involvement in various left-wing causes and organizations, but his career was not greatly affected.
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Throughout his life he was greatly involved in social issues as well as in philanthropy.
Bernstein married actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre in 1951, with whom he had three children. In 1976 he came out as gay, no longer able to conceal his true sexual identity. He died of a heart attack at home on October 9, 1990.
