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{burn'-styn}
Leonard Bernstein, b. Lawrence, Mass., Aug. 25, 1918, d. Oct.
14, 1990, was a well-known figure in contemporary American
music. He studied composition with Randall Thompson and Walter
PISTON and conducting with Serge KOUSSEVITZKY. Conductor,
composer, pianist, lecturer, television personality, and author,
Bernstein was called a musical renaissance man. He was best
known, however, as a conductor since his professional debut
in 1943, when he replaced the indisposed Bruno WALTER as the
conductor of the NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC in a program that Bernstein
directed without rehearsal. Later guest appearances with major
American and European orchestras showed him to be one of the
most talented conductors of his generation. He was the musical
director of the New York City Center Orchestra from 1945 to
1947 and was musical director and conductor of the New York
Philharmonic, the first American to hold this post, from 1958
to 1969, at which time he was named conductor laureate for
life. He conducted opera at LA SCALA, the METROPOLITAN OPERA,
and the Vienna State Opera. A dynamic personality with an
acute musical intelligence and a large repertoire, Bernstein
reached a large audience with his educational programs on
television.
Bernstein pursued an impressive career as a composer of both
serious and popular music. His major works include three symphonies:
the Jeremiah (1944), The Age of Anxiety (1949), and the Kaddish
(1963); three ballets, Fancy Free (1944), Facsimile (1946),
and Dybbuk (1974); Chichester Psalms (1965), a choral work;
and Mass, a theater piece that he wrote for the opening of
the KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS in Washington,
D.C., in 1971. He also composed music for the Broadway musicals
On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1952), Candide (1956),
and West Side Story (1957). An expanded Candide was successfully
reprogrammed as an opera in 1982. Bernstein's other operas
include Trouble in Tahiti (1952) and its sequel, A Quiet Place
(1983). Bernstein was the author of Young People's Concerts
(1970), a collection of his television talks, and The Unanswered
Question (1976), his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard,
and Findings (1982).
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