?Leonard BernsteinBy Amy Lyn WalkerLeonard Bernstein was born

?Leonard BernsteinBy Amy Lyn WalkerLeonard Bernstein was born

?Leonard BernsteinBy Amy Lyn WalkerLeonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence,Massachusetts. He’s family emigrated to the United States.

They were RussianJews. As a young child, Leonard learned to play the piano and he attendedHarvard University. He attended courses and lectures held by EdwardBurlingham Hill, Water Piston, and Arthur Tillmann Merritt.

He received hisdiploma in 1939.He studied under Isabella Vengerova, a talented piano player at the CurtisInstitute in Philadelphia, Fritz Reiner, an orchestral conductor, and RandallThompson for orchestration. Bernstein specialized in orchestral conducting andwent to Tanglewood from 1940-1941. He became a pupil of Sergei A.

Koussevitzky, and became his assistant in 1942. He was appointed, only oneyear later, by Artur Rodzinski as the assistant director of music at the New YorkPhilharmonic Orchestra. After he stepped in for Bruno Walter, who became ill,and he conducted a concert of this great orchestra. After this he worked withthe New York City Orchestra.

In 1947 he conducted the Isreal Philharmonic Orchestra, for which he wasthe musical advisor until 1949. After this, he went on a long tour withKoussevitzky. After Koussevitzky’s death, Bernstein taught orchestral conductingat Tanglewood, and also worked at Brandeis University. In 1957, he joined theNew York Philharmonic, which he conducted alternately with DimitriMitropoulos. From 1958-1969, he was the musical director of this orchestrabefore he was appointed laureate conductor for life. He was the first Americanconductor to be invited to the Scala, and he conducted there.

From 1969 on, Bernstein received invitations from all the majorestablishments and orchestras of the world. He cooperated with the ViennesePhilharmonic, which he recorded the complete symphonies of Beethoven, andalso recorded his own three symphonies with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestral.His best performances were with works by Gustav Mahler, George Gershwin, andIgor Stravinsky.

He was very receptive to modern music, and continued thework of Koussevitzky, and strongly supported American composers.Leonard’s enthusiasm quickly made him very popular. He found a newand very successful way to present classical music on television and to win newaudiences for it. Tours, teaching and concerts were unable to crowd out twoareas which he had dedicated himself to from his youth, piano andcomposition.

Starting from the beginning, he wrote for the stage, not theconcert hall. He wrote the song cycles, I hate music, Good Cooking and a balletcalled Fancy free. He eventually developed Fancy free into a musica. He calledit On The Town, and made it a hit on Broadway. He wrote a mass for thededication of the John F.

Kennedy Center in New York in 1971.Bernstein was influenced by different styles. Some of them included: jazz,folk music, religious choral themes, songs and ballads. He wrote a very famousmusical called West Side Story. West Side Story showed the public how easilyhe could work with rhythm and melody. He wrote another musical calledCandide in 1956.

Bernstein passed away on October 14th, 1990. He may be gone now buthis achievements will forever live on.