- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLouis Eliezer Bernstein
- Nickname
- Lennie
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Renowned composer ("West Side Story", "Candide", "On The Town"), conductor, arranger, pianist, educator, author, TV/radio host, educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University (BA) with Walter Piston. Edward Burlingame Hill and A. Tillman Merritt. He studied piano with Helen Coates, Heinrich Gebhard and Isabelle Vengerova, at the Curtis Institute with Fritz Reiner, and at the Berkshire Music Center with Serge Koussevitzky (and became an assistant to Koussevitzky). He was assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943-1944, and conductor of the New York Symphony, 1945-1948.
He was music advisor to the Israel Philharmonic from 1948-1949, and a member of the faculty at the Berkshire Music Center from 1948 (though he did take leaves of absence), and head of the conducting department there in 1951. He was Professor of Music at Brandeis University, 1951-1956; and co-conductor of the New York Philharmonic, 1957-1958, and music director there after 1958. He won an Emmy award for his televised Young People's Concerts. He was guest conductor of symphony orchestras in the USA and Europe, and conducted the Israel Philharmonic seven times between 1947 and 1957. He toured the US with Koussevitzky in 1951, and was the first American to conduct at the La Scala Opera House in Milan, in 1953. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in Denmark, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
He joined ASCAP in 1944, and his chief musical collaborators included Betty Comden, Adolph Green, John Latouche, and Stephen Sondheim. His song compositions include "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "Some Other Time", "I Can Cook, Too", "I Get Carried Away", "Lucky to Be Me", "Ohio", "A Quiet Girl", "It's Love", "A Little Bit in Love", "Wrong Note Rag", "Glitter and Be Gay", "El Dorado", "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Maria", "Tonight", "Something's Coming", "I Feel Pretty", "Cool", "America", and "Gee, Officer Krupke".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseFelicia Montealegre(September 9, 1951 - June 16, 1978) (her death, 3 children)
- Children
- RelativesShirley Bernstein(Sibling)Burton Bernstein(Sibling)
- Was a fan of The Beatles. Whenever daughter Jamie would bring home a Beatles album, he would urge her to put on the record player and listen to it with his children.
- Named to then-President Richard Nixon's famed "enemies list" for hosting a fund-raising party in 1970 for the Black Panthers, the Afro-American militant group, with a glamorous Who's Who of the New York City performing arts scene (for that era) in attendance. Journalist/novelist Tom Wolfe covered the event for New Yorker Magazine, later publishing his comments in book form as "Radical Chic".
- Because of his many appearances on television, Bernstein became the most popular and famous conductor in the US, and one of the most famous in the world, seen and loved by millions of families who tuned in to his pioneering New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (1958). Through these concerts, children all over the world were introduced to classical music.
- 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.
- Did not begin playing the piano until age ten.
- I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing as [Arturo Toscanini] did, studying and restudying 50 pieces of music. It would bore me to death. I want to conduct, play the piano, compose.
- [April 1962, remarks to the audience from his remarks to the audience during a concert at which time he publicly disassociated himself from Glenn Gould's interpretation of the Johannes Brahms' D minor piano concerto about to be performed] 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.
- Life without music is unthinkable. Music without life is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.
- Natalie Wood played Maria, the Puerto Rican damsel, in "West Side Story". Natalie lost.
- Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the 20th century. He introduced the beat to everything--music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution--the '60s comes from it.
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