Over the course of his career as a podium celebrity, he led countless concerts of repertoire from the Baroque to contemporary music, winning particular notice for his interpretations of Beethoven and Mahler.īernstein was also a composer of great ability and verve.
#Leonard bernstein musical compositions series
In 1958, he was appointed Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in the same year, he began his legendary series of televised concerts for children, which are still regarded as definitive ground-breaking educational events. For the next fifteen years, he conducted the greatest orchestras of the world, both in concerts and in a blistering schedule of recordings, and won the highest stature as a pianist. From this moment on, he was the darling of the classical music world, particularly in America, where he was proclaimed the greatest young musician of the age. On November 14, he was called upon to substitute-conduct a demanding Philharmonic concert his flair and virtuosity captivated the audience, and critics sang his praises. Even at this relatively young age, Bernstein was considered a major talent, both on the podium and at the piano.īy 1943, Bernstein had attained a position as an assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic in November of that year, he had his famous musical epiphany. During the summers of 19, he went to the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and studied with his most important musical mentor, conductor/bassist Serge Koussevitzky. After graduating in 1939, he arrived at the Curtus Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied conducting with the legendary maestro Fritz Reiner. He studied piano in Boston as a child, and entered Harvard at the age of seventeen, where his composition teachers included Walter Piston and A. in 1918 he changed his name to Leonard to avoid confusion with a relative named Louis. He was born Louis Bernstein into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants in Lawrence, Mass. As a charismatic ambassador of music, he remains without peer. He was the leading light of 20th century American music, and no contemporary musician of any instrument or specialty pursues his craft without first acknowledging a debt to Bernstein. More importantly, he contributed a galaxy of superlative compositions and recorded performances to our culture, and redefined the boundaries between classical music and other recently-derived popular styles. A prodigiously talented composer, pianist, conductor and teacher, Leonard Bernstein did more to validate America’s position in the musical world than virtually any other musician in history.
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