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Leonard Bernstein

Personal Profile

Leonard Bernstein
  • Birth Name:
    Louis Bernstein
  • Nickname:
    Lennie
  • Date of Birth:
    August 25, 1918
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Virgo
  • Place of Birth:
    Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA
  • Place of Death:
    New York City, New York, USA
  • Date of Death:
    October 14, 1990
  • Cause of Death:
    Heart Attack
  • Sex:
    Male
  • Nationality:
    American
  • Education:
    Harvard

Family

Leonard Bernstein

    Career

    Leonard Bernstein

    Trivia

    Leonard Bernstein
    • Caused a stir in April of 1962 when he informed the audience at a concert that he assumed no responsibility for the performance they were about to hear of the Brahms D minor concerto with soloist Glenn Gould.
    • Served as music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969; took a one-year sabbatical leave in 1964-65. Was named laureate conductor for life when he stepped down from the music director's post.
    • Conducted the world premiere of Charles Ives' Second Symphony in 1951.
    • Was the first American-born and American-trained conductor to be appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic and to conduct at Milan's La Scala Opera House.
    • He made his professional conducting debut on November 14, 1943 without even rehearsing the orchestra because there had not been enough time. He created a sensation partly because one of the pieces he conducted was Richard Strauss's enormously complicated symphonic poem "Don Quixote".
    • Because of his many appearances on television, Bernstein became the most popular and famous conductor in the United States, and one of the most famous in the world, seen and loved by millions of families who tuned in to his pioneering "Young People's Concerts". Through these concerts, children all over the world were introduced to classical music.
    • He selected November 14, 1954 as the date for his first television lecture (the famous "Omnibus" program on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony), because he had made his professional conducting debut eleven years previously on the same date, and he felt it brought him good luck.
    • Such world-famous musicians as pianist Andre Watts and conductor Seiji Ozawa were first introduced to the general public on his "Young People's Concerts".
    • He was the first conductor to conduct more than 1,000 concerts with the New York Philharmonic.
    • He made at least one television appearance either conducting or teaching music (or both), nearly every year from 1954 until the year he died (1990). He is very likely the only symphony conductor ever to have done so.

    Quotes

    Leonard Bernstein
    • "lvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution - the 60s comes from it."
    • "Natalie Wood played Maria, the Puerto Rican damsel in 'West Side Story.' Natalie lost."
    • "Life without music is unthinkable. Music without life is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace."
    • "I have only once before in my life ever had to submit to a soloist's totally new and incompatible view, and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould. But this time, the discrepancies between our views are so great that I feel I must make this small disclaimer."
    • "I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing as Toscanini did, studying and restudying 50 pieces of music. It would bore me to death. I want to conduct, play the piano, compose."
    View all Quotes: Leonard Bernstein

    Biography

    Leonard Bernstein
    Last Updated: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

    He was the first American-born conductor of a major symphony orchestra to become as famous as he did. There had been some American-born conductors before him, including Arthur Fiedler, who conducted the Boston Pops from 1930 to the late 1970's, and Alfred Wallenstein, who became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1943.

    Fiedler did become very well-known, but the Boston Pops played, and still play, mostly light classics, not pieces like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (as the N.Y. Philharmonic did), and none of the other American born conductors had even a fraction of the impact that Bernstein did, although the Boston Pops' recordings have always rivaled Bernstein's in popularity. Bernstein's many talents - conducting, composing, writing, teaching, and piano-playing - aroused the admiration of the public, but resentment from a few critics.

    It was not until Bernstein was into his later years that some critics who had previously dismissed him began to show a grudging respect for him. Today, he is universally acknowledged as perhaps the greatest conductor that the United States has ever produced.

    Filmography

    Leonard Bernstein

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