Leonard Bernstein at 100

I was visiting one springtime in the 1970s, with my young children who had been introduced at home to the Young People's Concerts. Friends of mine decided to have a Seder at their small beach-side restaurant, The Golden Sunset, on the Seven Mile Beach. [No longer there, but a hotel with that name may be on the same site.] My friends had posted fliers around town. What a delightful surprise when Leonard, Shirley, and a couple of her children joined the small gathering. He was very engaged in the celebration and played the piano afterward. I whispered to my children, "That's the man you saw on the Young People's Concerts!"

I was introduced to Lenny on the stage of the Kennedy Center in the fall of 1971, after a performance of his MASS. Upon learning that I was just about to enter his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a composition major, he invited me to send him my music. He then invited me to a rehearsal of Carmen at the Met, where he told me how much he liked my music, after which I received several grants from his foundation. After graduation, I auditioned for Roland Gagnon, musical director for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and as Lenny knew me, I did not have to audition for him and my Broadway career was launched. He was incredibly encouraging of my conducting and playing, and while the show had a troubled life, I went on to compose, write dance music and arrangements for over 30 Broadway shows as well as television and film. We kept in touch for years after 1600 Penn. I enclose a wonderful letter from him. He was my greatest musical influence and I will be forever grateful that he touched my life in such a deeply meaningful way.

In June, 1965, Maestro Bernstein was in San Juan, Puerto Rico to conduct and play at the Casals Festival. He was to play and conduct from the piano Mozart's Concerto K.453. His tuner from New York came with him. There was something wrong with the Baldwin concert grand, and it couldn't be repaired. Arthur Rubinstein had just performed at the Festival. Maestro Bernstein had to use Rubinstein's Steinway. Since Maestro Bernstein couldn't be seen playing a Steinway since he was a Baldwin artist, a large piece of masking tape was placed over the Steinway sign, Brand X!

The maestro had observed me in a conducting seminar at Tanglewood in 1989, and the next morning, when I happened to meet him on the grounds as we went to a BSO rehearsal, he paused and turned to me: "The next time I see you conduct" (what a way for Leonard Bernstein to begin a sentence!) "I don't want to see what you think I'm supposed to see. I want to see how you feel about music."

I have never forgotten those words in the years since, and they mean more to me as I go along. And I am especially moved as I think how he didn't have to say anything to me that morning. He could have just smiled and nodded, or not remembered me at all. But he became a counselor, or something like a dad or a sage rabbi. One of the most meaningful moments in my life.

“He’s the greatest player I’ve ever conducted....do everything he tells you to do!” That was the first time I heard Leonard Bernstein’s voice in person. I was introduced to him by his favorite, Roland Berger of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on the stage of the Musikverein at a rehearsal break during a year of study in Vienna. I never dreamed that by the following summer at Tanglewood in 1979 I’d be playing principal horn for him with the BMC in Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, doing my best to put every ounce of what I’d learn in Vienna from Berger to work with Bernstein at Tanglewood. I was truly nervous before the concert. But once we started on stage - Bernstein made it the easiest concert I’ve ever played. Everything was possible with him, the best teacher of all helped me find my own musical voice that night. And that performance also sealed the love of my life. My wife violist Jan Karlin and I met that summer as BMC Fellows, a summer romance still going strong, often propelled by the memory of that performance. I had to suppress a proposal right then and there, but wisely held back the timing in my heart to allow enough time for us both to absorb the road ahead. But by the following summer in 1980, sure enough a few hours before I would propose to Jan, Bernstein saw me on the Tanglewood lawn and gave me a slap on my back, saying of all things “Good luck!” Today in 2018 and in our early 60s, Jan and I are now the first Americans appointed as artistic advisors by the Vietnamese government to guide the development of the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. Everyday we are in Việt Nam, the engaged life of Leonard Bernstein inspires us to do our best to realize his well known statement as a response to violence. And there is another influence worth mentioning. Roland Berger told me that the second time Bernstein returned to Vienna, his German was flawless. They had never experienced such a dramatic language change from any other conductor. So Jan and I are following another lifetime influence from Leonard Bernstein. We now speak intermediate Vietnamese (talk about a challenge.....), building trust in countless ways, and of course our studies continue. And sometimes in Việt Nam, of all places for us as American musicians who met at Tanglewood, I can still feel him slapping my back after a performance in Hà Nội.

My dad played viola in the Philharmonic - he was hired by Bernstein in his first year. I met "Lenny" a couple of times. The one that stands out, for some reason, occurred on a flight of stairs somewhere in Philharmonic Hall (as it was known then), in maybe the early 1970's. We shook hands. He wasn't a tall man, but the power in his hands, his body, and his personality really impressed me. Those pianist's hands were like slabs of granite.

As a starry-eyed Fellowship student at Tanglewood in 1970, I not only had an entire week of intensive learning in Bruckner's 9th Symphony with Leonard Bernstein, but I also was among the privileged few who were invited to ride around the Tanglewood grounds with him in his car. After rehearsal, on those days when his big boat of a car was waiting for him at the entrance of what was then the Concert Hall, he'd say, "Hop in, kids, let's go for a ride!" So we'd all pile in - sometimes Jamie, Alex, and/or Nina would be there with us - and Lenny would drive around, one hand on the steering wheel, the other hand gesturing at all the stunning beauty surrounding us. He'd quote poetry and sayings about the beauty of nature - Emerson, Thoreau, and others. But who remembers exactly who he was quoting? I was riding in Leonard Bernstein's car!! It wasn't until much later, when I became a music lecturer and did research on Lenny's history with Tanglewood, that I discovered that Koussevitzky had done the same for his students when Lenny was a student back in the 1940s. So Lenny channeled his beloved teacher and mentor - and gave us the same unforgettable experience.

In my high school days, after a big family Sunday dinner, I would hole myself up in the kitchen while keeping everyone else out, as I did all the dishes. That way I could listen to Bernstein and the beautiful music without any kitchen help talking and making noise to interfere with the concerts. I loved it!

I remember going to Lincoln Center, getting the cheap $5 student seats and watching Lenny play Copland - the all American, western based sounds of Copland - and getting into character as he was leading his cowboys into the music. That image of him - bringing himself and his feelings into the music - is stuck in my brain.

I certainly remember Leonard Bernstein when we were both in residence at the MacDowell Colony during 1962. Lenny was always open and greatly charming. I remember one evening having drinks before supper seated outside and talking with Lenny. At one moment he said to me: "Ray, you are Italian, let's play opera quiz. We will each in turn, give the opening lines to a specific Italian aria and we will take turns guessing from which opera the aria belongs". Well, Leonard won, of course. (As I remember it was from Verdi's "Otello" that I missed).

Another evening at an informal gathering at his studio, Leonard at the piano suggested that we both sing Mimi's death scene from "La Boheme". He said I should sing Mimi! I replied firstly that I was not a singer and obviously it is a soprano role. Lenny said no matter I will bring the pitch down. So he did and so I sang Mimi's great death aria "sono andati...." My one and only operatic debut!

Leonard always looked for and brought out the best in people.

Photo: Eastman Studio at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire; courtesy of MacDowell Colony.

I went to the MacDowell Colony for the first time in the early '70s . I arrived late on a Sunday afternoon. The Colony seemed deserted. I cautiously entered the largest building in sight, and found myself in the lounge. There was only one person there--Bernstein. I knew from the papers that he had just been in Washington conducting the premiere of a new oratorio. It had received very unfavorable reviews from the critics. What was he doing at MacDowell? He was in flight from the bad publicity, I decided, and licking his wounds. But he was gracious and generous to me. He greeted me, explained where I was, where the dining room was, how to find my bedroom in an adjacent house. That was the last I saw of him. But I'll always remember that warm welcome to MacDowell, at what must have been a tough time for him.

Photo: Wood Studio at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire; courtesy of MacDowell Colony

I liked when Leonard Bernstein let comedian Danny Kaye lead The New York Philharmonic at The Young People's Concert!

As the head of marketing for Laskys we has a strategy of sponsoring classical music concerts and the most important one for us was the Leonard Bernstein 'Songfest' at which we had over 100 invited guests with a post concert reception at which Leonard Bernstein chatted with many guests. My first job at the reception was to give LB a scotch and dry. A most amiable man who said call me Len. He signed the programme for me. A memorable evening, enjoying somewhat different music from West Side Story.

From the first audition to opening night, Carol Lawrence recalls her experiences working with Bernstein in the original 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story.

Quincy Jones remembers the time he spent his last dollar on West Side Story in 1958 and how he spent 10-15 years trying to teach Bernstein how to say "Yo Mama".

En 1982 yo tenía 22 años. En aquellos días Leonard Bernstein dirigió la Consagración de la Primavera con la Orquesta Filarmónica de Israel en la Sala Nezahualcóyotl en la Ciudad de México. Fue una experiencia incandescente que nos sacudió a todos; en particular a los muchachos que no teníamos idea de o que era un volcán en erupción. A partir de ese momento me hice asiduo asistente a conciertos de música del siglo XX y contemporánea.

In 1982 I was 22 years old. In those days, Leonard Bernstein conducted "The Rite of Spring" with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico City. It was an incandescent experience that shook us all; in particular to the boys, that we had no idea that it was an erupting volcano. From that moment on I became an assiduous assistant to 20th and 20th century music concerts.
(English translation from Google Translate).

Me tocó en Amsterdam que Leonard Bernstein dirigiera la 4a Sinfonía de Mahler con un niño como soprano solista. Los versos y la voz cristalina de aquel muchacho dieron un sentido muy conmovedor a ese concierto en beneficio de las víctimas del SIDA. Yo acababa de perder a un amigo muy querido en medio de un sufrimiento devastador.

I played in Amsterdam for Leonard Bernstein directing Mahler's 4th Symphony with a child as a solo soprano. The verses and the crystalline voice of that boy gave a very moving sense to that concert for the benefit of the victims of AIDS. I had just lost a very dear friend in the midst of devastating suffering.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin discusses the importance of Leonard Bernstein and how he "showed all of us the way".

This interview was conducted in 2018 by the National Museum of American Jewish History, located on Historic Independence Mall in Philadelphia, as part of the original exhibition "Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music".

Dr. David Saletan was my father's (Stan Watkins') best friend; as children we would go into New York City to have our teeth cared for. Lenonard Bernstein ("Lenny") was a good friend as he also went to Dr. Saletan who often charged his artist patients very little for his work. Lenny taught David's son Tony to play jazz on the piano; and we three girls, a few years younger than Tony, always made him play for us. Tony is still singing folk songs in California. His sister, Rhoda, was Lenny's girlfriend for a while, though she always insisted she was only "eye candy." I never met the great man in person, only vicariously through Uncle David's stories about Lenny.

Now I live in New Mexico and enjoy events at the Academy for the Love of Learning, started by Leonard Bernstein and his protege, Aaron Stern, in Seton Village near Santa Fe.

Happy Birthday Lenny!

A photo of a photo (unable to scan). The occasion I believe was Copland's birthday party at my family's apartment at 60 Sutton Place South in 1965.

Alec Baldwin discusses Bernstein's legacy and sings his favorite Bernstein melody.

This interview was conducted in 2018 by the National Museum of American Jewish History, located on Historic Independence Mall in Philadelphia, as part of the original exhibition "Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music".

On view March 16 - September 2, 2018. More info: https://www.nmajh.org/bernstein/

This summer marks the 30th anniversary of when my wife Daria and I had our first date. She and I met at a summer course in German language and culture, held at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, Germany. Participants had come from more than 30 different countries for one month, Daria from Italy and I from the United States. One evening a group of us decided to attend a festival concert directed by Leonard Bernstein, and Daria and I sat together. I will never forget her words: "Ich bin froh, daß ich bei keinem Fremden sitze..." ("I am happy that I am not sitting with a stranger"). We often look back on that summer evening in which Bernstein and the festival orchestra serenaded us. That initial spark lived on and gave us courage to build a life together, bridging our two continents against fate. Our story is so meaningful to us that we decided to return to Kiel this summer, exactly 30 years later, to relive this memory and attend one more concert of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Thank you Leonard Bernstein and your dedication to students everywhere across these many years!

Photo: Leonard Bernstein rehearsing at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, 1988.
Library of Congress Digital Archives: https://www.loc.gov/item/lbphotos.88a059/

In a shady corner of beautiful Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, in a family plot lies the great man. Encore, Lenny.

There was always music in my home thanks to my parents - classical and show music stand out in my memory.

That planted a seed. Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts nourished that seed and helped it to grow to a lifelong love of music. He explained the themes and ‘story’ in music so I recognized and understood them.

Music is the language of the soul, and Leonard Bernstein helped my soul to grow.