Bradley Cooper’s movie “Maestro,” released earlier this year, prompted many people to discover or rediscover the remarkable contributions that Leonard Bernstein brought to the world of music.
We should remember Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), an American conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he rose to fame as the first American-born conductor to achieve international acclaim, leading the New York Philharmonic and championing the works of Carl Nielsen and Gustav Mahler. Bernstein composed enduring masterpieces including West Side Story, Candide, and Chichester Psalms. A charismatic communicator, he brought classical music to millions through his compelling television programs and concerts for young listeners.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of music,
I am Leonard Bernstein, born in 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts — the son of immigrant parents who could never have imagined that their boy, pounding away at an upright piano, would one day stand on the podiums of the world. Music came to me first as a hunger, then as a calling. I studied at Harvard, then at the Curtis Institute, but my true education came on the stage — in rehearsal halls, in smoky Broadway theaters, and finally before great orchestras.
I burst into public life one Sunday in 1943, when, at the age of twenty-five, I was asked without warning to step in for the great Bruno Walter and conduct the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. That concert, broadcast nationwide, changed everything — and my life in music began in earnest.
I have spent my career refusing to choose between worlds. I wrote for Broadway and for the concert hall. My musicals — On the Town, Wonderful Town, and of course West Side Story — tried to bring the energy of the streets and the pain of love into song and dance. My symphonies — Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish — wrestle with faith, doubt, and the modern world’s fractured soul.
Along the way I was blessed with extraordinary companions. Aaron Copland, my beloved mentor and friend, taught me that American music could be both vernacular and profound. I admired and conducted the works of Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. I championed Gustav Mahler, helping to bring his symphonies back to life for a new century. And I encouraged younger composers who were searching for their own voices, just as I once had.
I have always believed that music must reach beyond the concert hall. Through my Young People’s Concerts, televised to millions, I tried to prove that serious music belongs to everyone — that a symphony is not a museum piece but a living conversation.
I died in 1990, in New York City, the place that gave me my stage, my orchestra, my family, and my restless heartbeat. But before leaving, I tried to show that the baton could draw no boundaries between jazz and fugue, prayer and Broadway, teacher and showman.
Thank you for sharing in that belief tonight — that music is a language of heart and mind, and that it speaks most powerfully when it speaks to us all.
A Selection of Works by Leonard Bernstein Available for Listening on Classical Archives
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Operas
Ballets
Musicals
Orchestral Works
Choral Works
Chamber Music
Piano Works
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