Bernstein
BernsteinLeonard Bernstein
By Amy Lyn Walker
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence,
Massachusetts. He’s family emigrated to the United States. They were Russian
Jews. As a young child, Leonard learned to play the piano and he attended
Harvard University. He attended courses and lectures held by Edward
Burlingham Hill, Water Piston, and Arthur Tillmann Merritt. He received his
diploma in 1939.
He studied under Isabella Vengerova, a talented piano player at the Curtis
Institute in Philadelphia, Fritz Reiner, an orchestral conductor, and Randall
Thompson for orchestration. Bernstein specialized in orchestral conducting and
went to Tanglewood from 1940-1941. He became a pupil of Sergei A.
Koussevitzky, and became his assistant in 1942. He was appointed, only one
year later, by Artur Rodzinski as the assistant director of music at the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. After he stepped in for Bruno Walter, who became ill,
and he conducted a concert of this great orchestra. After this he worked with
the New York City Orchestra.
In 1947 he conducted the Isreal Philharmonic Orchestra, for which he was
the musical advisor until 1949. After this, he went on a long tour with
Koussevitzky. After Koussevitzky’s death, Bernstein taught orchestral conducting
at Tanglewood, and also worked at Brandeis University. In 1957, he joined the
New York Philharmonic, which he conducted alternately with Dimitri
Mitropoulos. From 1958-1969, he was the musical director of this orchestra
before he was appointed laureate conductor for life. He was the first American
conductor to be invited to the Scala, and he conducted there.
From 1969 on, Bernstein received invitations from all the...
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