Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), conductor, composer, musician, thinker, author, and pianist, was one of the most successful and influential artists of the 20th century.

From his debut leading the New York Philharmonic at the age of 25, Bernstein crafted a lengthy career as a conductor, leading many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and of course the New York Philharmonic, his longtime home as musical director. His range and interests were eclectic, but he was especially known for his conducting of Gustav Mahler and a host of American composers, including Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Gershwin (his recording of Rhapsody in Blue is considered definitive). He re-imagined the role of conductor for the modern age, and brought a new respect world-wide for American musicians and artists.

As a composer, Bernstein’s greatest popular success was a trilogy of musicals, On the Town, Candide, and arguably his masterpiece, West Side Story. But he also wrote symphonies, choral works, chamber music, piano pieces, and soundtracks, including the score for the classic Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront. Some of his works, notably Mass, combined widely eclectic musical styles for vocalists, dancers, and an orchestra, and have proven to be more popular today than when they debuted—proving that even some of his less popular works were ahead of their time.

Bernstein was also a media celebrity on an unprecedented scale for a musician. Through recordings, radio broadcasts and his enormously popular Young People's Concerts on CBS television (lasting from 1958 to 1972), Bernstein used his influence to educate people on all aspects of music, from the individual instruments in an orchestra to the lives and works of the world’s greatest composers. To many people, Bernstein was the initial entry into an entire new world of music. (Composer and critic Virgil Thomson called him "the ideal explainer of music, both past and present.")

Bernstein also was a passionate advocate for causes ranging from civil rights to nuclear disarmament and the end of the Vietnam War, and his developed social conscience was a constant thread through his life and work.

Boundlessly energetic, relentlessly curious, and defiantly himself as a man and an artist, Bernstein’s multiplicity of talents and interests makes him the perfect subject for this city-wide Festival. Ever a man to enjoy a great party, we’re sure that Leonard Bernstein would have been thrilled to be celebrated by an event of this magnitude.