Latest News
- PBS to Rebroadcast Ravinia Festival's MASS Over the coming months, public television stations will schedule broadcasts of Great Performances: LEONARD BERNSTEIN MASS, the Ravinia Festival’s highly acclaimed 2019 production conducted by Marin Alsop and featuring Tony Award winner Paulo Szot as the Celebrant. Read August 24, 2021
- Sony Classical Releases Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (Remastered) for 50th Celebrating the Anniversary of its Premiere on September 8, 1971 at the Kennedy Center Originally commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the opening of the Kennedy Center, MASS was a unique theatrical experience – a fully-staged dramatic pageant that mixed sacred and secular texts and used various musical forms from classical, jazz, and rock to Hebraic and Broadway. Read August 24, 2021
- From the Archives: Vojtĕch Dyk Speaks About Bernstein’s MASS Project (as printed in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of Prelude, Fugue & Riffs) This past year the BUJOART production of MASS has been touring the Czech Republic to rave reviews. Vojtěech Dyk, who performs the role of the Celebrant, shares his thoughts about MASS. Read August 23, 2021
- From the Archives: MASS in the Czech Republic (as printed in the Spring/Summer 2016 issue of Prelude, Fugue & Riffs) Beginning in March this year and returning in the autumn, MASS has been touring the Czech Republic. This production was presented by BUJOART with Josef Buchta and Vojtěĕch Dyk (who is the Celebrant) as producers. Read August 23, 2021
- From the Archives: MASS Today In the past few years, Bernstein’s theatre piece MASS has found a new relevance and a growing audience. Since January 2000, MASS has had nearly 100 performances worldwide in cities as various as Sydney, Australia, Valencia, Spain, and Kalamazoo, Michigan; and in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Cathedral in Rouen, France, and the Vatican in Rome. Read August 23, 2021
- Isata Kanneh-Mason receives 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award Isata Kanneh-Mason receives 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Read August 23, 2021
- Enjoy a special look at Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY, only in theaters, this December 10. Enjoy a special look at Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY, only in theaters, this December 10. Read August 2, 2021
- Ravinia Music Box to Open with Theater Experience Celebrating The Legacy Of Leonard Bernstein On Saturday, August 7, the Ravinia Festival and Jeffrey P. Haydon, its President and CEO, will officially unveil the Ravinia Music Box (RMB) and its immersive theater experience, titled Bernstein’s Answer, and fully open the experience center to the public. Read July 21, 2021
- From the Archives: MASS in Virginia As I approached the great honor of conducting Leonard Bernstein's MASS, I was reminded so strongly of my personal experiences with this extraordinary man during my student days at Juilliard. Read July 20, 2021
- From the Archives: Today's MASS As a seminarian, I was shaken to the core by these words and the all-enveloping theatrical experience of seeing Bernstein's MASS in 1973 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Ironically, critics then and now cite these lines when castigating the piece. But maybe times have finally caught up with Mass with today's sense of apprehension and insecurity, in government and finance as well as in matters of the spirit. Read July 20, 2021
- Bringing Classical Music into Children's Homes with TONIES® Inspiring the next generation by introducing children to classical music early, tonies® has launched a delightful double-bill showcasing charming evergreens ‘Peter & The Wolf’ and ‘Carnival of the Animals’ in a Tonie that plays these beautiful orchestral fairy tales when placed on its Toniebox audio player. Read June 28, 2021
- A Chat with Maestro Chien Wen-Pin Craig Urquhart recently interviewed Taiwanese conductor Chien Wen-Pin to discuss Chien's career in Asia and Europe, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Read June 28, 2021
- In Memory of Mary Ahern (1922-2021) Mary Ahern was a television pioneer and one of TV's earliest producers. She produced features on music, history, and theater for the seminal cultural magazine series Omnibus, including Leonard Bernstein's seven historic programs. Jack Gottlieb, who was Bernstein’s assistant for many years, shared his memories of Ahern in his book "Working With Bernstein," some of which are excerpted here. Read June 28, 2021
- From the Archives: Trouble in Tahiti TROUBLE IN TAHITI by Humphrey Burton (as printed in the Winter 1993 issue of Prelude, Fugue & Riffs) Read June 28, 2021
- Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2021 available for Pre-Order You can now purchase the Vienna Philharmonic's Summer Night Concert 2021 album in various formats to remember the magical night in the comfort of your living room. Read June 25, 2021
- Summer 2021 Reading As the summer arrives, there are armfuls of books about Bernstein collaborators and friends to keep our beach days full. Read June 25, 2021
- New Documentaries to Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June Two documentaries of interest are premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival: a film about Bernstein by Doug Tirola, as well as a documentary about conductor and Bernstein protegée, Marin Alsop. Read May 6, 2021
- Watch the Official Teaser for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story Watch the Official Teaser for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story Read April 25, 2021
- 2021 Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts at Brandeis University - April 25-May 1 Online and on campus, art finds a way. Read April 25, 2021
- From the Archives: MASS Revisited by James Carroll In the late 1960's Jacqueline Kennedy asked Leonard Bernstein to compose a mass in honor of her slain husband to be performed at the dedication of Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The result was Bernstein's "MASS: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers," an extraordinary composition [written in collaboration with Stephen Schwartz] that combined the production values of opera, choral magnificence, the hip choreography of Broadway, intricate symphonic harmonies - and a heartbreaking narrative turning on the figure of an all-too-human young priest. I was such a priest when I attended a performance of MASS in its opening run in 1971, and it left me shaken. Read April 21, 2021