Childhood & Early Life
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on 25 August 1918 to Samuel and Jennie Bernstein. His birth name was Louis though it was renamed to Leonard at the age of 16.
Most of his childhood was spent doing odd jobs like mopping floors and stocking wigs for a dealer. Still from an early age, he went to orchestral concerts and piano performances which immensely captivated him. When his family acquired his cousin’s unwanted piano, he started learning the piano more seriously. Slowly, he began playing entire operas or Beethoven symphonies along with his younger sister, Shirley.
He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1935, after which he attended Harvard University. There he graduated by majoring in music. His final year thesis was titled ‘The Absorption of the Race Elements into American Music.’
At the university, David Wight Prall, who was a philosopher of art, heavily influenced him with his multidisciplinary outlook on arts, which Bernstein remembered for the rest of his life. He was also influenced by Marc Blitzstein, with whom he later became friends.
In 1939, after completing his graduation, he went to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, which was situated in Philadelphia. Here, he started studying and practicing with prominent conductors like Fritz Reiner and pianists like Isabelle Vengerova. Over the time he spent here, he is said to have greatly enjoyed the environment in this Institute.
Career
After completing his training Leonard Bernstein left Curtis and settled in New York. The New York Philharmonic offered him a position of assistant conductor in 1943. Once when the symphony’s guest conductor fell ill, Bernstein had to step up and take his place, which he did with great success, amazing the crowd and the players. This made him a successful conductor overnight.
From 1945, he started conducting the New York orchestra and appearing as well, as a guest conductor across the United States. During the next few years, his career started to blossom, and he went on several international tours in order to perform. His overseas debut started with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague.
In 1949, he conducted the world premiere of the famous Turangalila-Symphonie, which was composed by Oliver Messiaen, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1954, Bernstein started the television show ‘Omnibus’. It allowed him to speak to his audience and music lovers more easily. He gave lectures on Omnibus for several years, which were made into a DVD set in 2010.
Later, though he stepped down from the New York Philharmonic, he still continued to appear with them for many years till his death. He also toured with them for many years to places like Europe and Asia.
He also joined hands with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted nine complete Mahler symphonies with them between the years 1967 and 1976. He also performed with the famous London Symphony Orchestra in Fly Cathedral in 1973, and just a few years later, he was named an Honorary President.
In 1973, Bernstein was appointed to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry, in Harvard University. He also delivered six lectures on music, with musical examples played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. These lectures were televised three years later in 1976.
In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International. They became quite popular later on, and were later released on CD, as well as broadcast on radio.
The Israel Philharmonic sponsored a festival in 1978, which commemorated his several years of dedication to Israel, and they bestowed upon him the title of Laureate Conductor in 1988.
He was quite fond of teaching young musicians as well, and was always looking for opportunities to do so. In 1982, he co-founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and a few years later he co-founded the Pacific Music Festival in Japan to help young musicians grow.
Later, during the celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, in East Berlin. This concert was broadcast in more than twenty countries to an audience of around 100 million people.
His final performance, two months before announcing his retirement, was as a conductor at Tanglewood in August 1990, where he played the ‘Four Sea Interludes’ of Benjamin Britten, with the Boston Symphony.
Major Works
His musical theater work ‘MASS’ which was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy as part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. is one of his best known works. The work, though intended to be staged theatrically, has also been performed in a standard concert setting.
His writings were published in several books and journals like ‘The Joy of Music’ (1959) and ‘The Infinite Variety of Music’ (1966). The lectures he gave at Harvard University were also published and televised as ‘The Unanswered Question.’
Awards & Achievements
Leonard Bernstein received many honors during and after his lifetime. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1981 where he was also awarded with a gold medal. He also received medals from the Beethoven Society, and from several colleges and universities.
For his humanitarian efforts, he received the National Fellowship Award in 1985.
In 1990, he received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize which was given by the Japan Arts Association. He used the prize money to establish an organization ‘The Bernstein Education Through the Arts’.
Personal Life & Legacy
Though there were rumors about his bisexuality, Leonard Bernstein married a Chilean-born American actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on 10 September 1951. He had three children- Jamie, Alexander and Nina.
Though there were rumors about his bisexuality, Leonard Bernstein married a Chilean-born American actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on 10 September 1951. He had three children- Jamie, Alexander and Nina.
