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Short Biography

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (August 25, 1918- October 14, 1990) was a world-renowned conductor and composer, and one of classical music's icons of the 20th century. He was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, leaving behind an enormous legacy of audio and video recordings. His books, as well as the much-beloved televised Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, established him as a leading educator. His orchestral and choral works include three symphonies (No. 1 "Jeremiah", No. 2 "Age of Anxiety", and No. 3 "Kaddish"), Serenade, MASS, Chichester Psalms, Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Arias and Barcarolles, and Concerto for Orchestra. Bernstein's works for the Broadway stage include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide and the immensely popular West Side Story. In addition to the West Side Story collaboration, Bernstein worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets, Fancy Free, Facsimile and Dybbuk. Mr. Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including eleven Emmy Awards, one Tony Award, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors.

Medium-length Biography

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (August 25, 1918- October 14, 1990) Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, thinker, and adventurous spirit, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) transformed the way Americans and people everywhere hear and appreciate music. Bernstein's successes as a composer ranged from the Broadway stage-West Side Story, On the Town, Wonderful Town, and Candide-to concert halls all over the world, where his orchestral and choral music continues to thrive. His major concert works include three symphonies-subtitled Jeremiah (1944), The Age of Anxiety (1949), and Kaddish (1963)-as well as Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1949); Serenade for violin, strings and percussion (1954); Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960); Chichester Psalms (1965); Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971); Songfest (1977); Divertimento for orchestra (1980); Halil for solo flute and small orchestra (1981); Touches (1981) and Thirteen Anniversaries (1988) for solo piano; Missa Brevis for singers and percussion (1988); Concerto for Orchestra: Jubilee Games (1989); and Arias and Barcarolles (1988). Bernstein also wrote the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1952, and its sequel, the three-act opera A Quiet Place, in 1983. He collaborated with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets-Fancy Free (1944), Facsimile (1946), and Dybbuk (1975). He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for On the Waterfront (1954). As a conductor, Bernstein was a dynamic presence on the podiums of the world's greatest orchestras for almost half a century, building a legacy that endures and continues to grow through a catalogue of over 500 recordings and filmed performances. Bernstein became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958, a position he held until 1969. Thereafter as permanent Laureate Conductor he made frequent guest appearances with the orchestra. Among the world's great orchestras, Bernstein also enjoyed special relationships with the Israel Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic, both of which he conducted extensively in live performances and recordings. He won 11 Emmy Awards for his celebrated television work, including the Emmy award-winning Young People's Concerts series with the New York Philharmonic. As teacher and performer, he played an active role with the Tanglewood Festival from its founding in 1940 till his death, as well as with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and Pacific Music Festival (both of which he helped found) and the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. Bernstein received many honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors (1980); the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal (1981); the MacDowell Colony's Gold Medal; medals from the Beethoven Society and the Mahler Gesellschaft; New York City's Handel Medallion; a special Tony Award (1969); dozens of honorary degrees and awards from colleges and universities; and national honors from Austria, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, and France. In 1985 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Bernstein with the Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award. His writings were published in The Joy of Music (1959), Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (1961), The Infinite Variety of Music (1966), and Findings (1982). As the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Bernstein also delivered six lectures at Harvard University in 1972-1973 that were subsequently published and televised as The Unanswered Question. In 1990, he received the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Arts Association awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein died on October 14, 1990.

Long Biography

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (August 25, 1918- October 14, 1990) was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds," and directed and performed in Marc Blitstein's "The Cradle Will Rock." Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson.

In 1940, he studied at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's newly created summer institute, Tanglewood, with the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant.

Bernstein was appointed to his first permanent conducting post in 1943, as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. On November 14, 1943, Bernstein substituted on a few hours notice for the ailing Bruno Walter at a Carnegie Hall concert, which was broadcast nationally on radio, receiving critical acclaim. Soon orchestras worldwide sought him out as a guest conductor.

In 1945 he was appointed Music Director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1947. After Serge Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein headed the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, teaching there for many years. In 1951 he married the Chilean actress and pianist, Felicia Montealegre. He was also visiting music professor, and head of the Creative Arts Festivals at Brandeis University in the early 1950s.

Bernstein became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958. From then until 1969 he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. He subsequently held the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor, making frequent guest appearances with the orchestra. More than half of Bernstein's 400-plus recordings were made with the New York Philharmonic.

Bernstein traveled the world as a conductor. Immediately after World War II, in 1946, he conducted in London and at the International Music Festival in Prague. In 1947 he conducted in Tel Aviv, beginning a relationship with Israel that lasted until his death. In 1953, Bernstein was the first American to conduct opera at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan: Cherubini's "Medea" with Maria Callas.

Bernstein was a leading advocate of American composers, particularly Aaron Copland. The two remained close friends for life. As a young pianist, Bernstein performed Copland's "Piano Variations" so often he considered the composition his trademark. Bernstein programmed and recorded nearly all of the Copland orchestral works —many of them twice. He devoted several televised "Young People's Concerts" to Copland, and gave the premiere of Copland's "Connotations," commissioned for the opening of Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center in 1962.

While Bernstein's conducting repertoire encompassed the standard literature, he may be best remembered for his performances and recordings of Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Sibelius and Mahler. Particularly notable were his performances of the Mahler symphonies with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, sparking a renewed interest in the works of Mahler.

Inspired by his Jewish heritage, Bernstein completed his first large-scale work: Symphony No. 1: "Jeremiah." (1943). The piece was first performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1944, conducted by the composer, and received the New York Music Critics' Award. Koussevitzky premiered Bernstein's Symphony No. 2: "The Age of Anxiety" with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein as piano soloist. His Symphony No. 3: "Kaddish," composed in 1963, was premiered by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. "Kaddish" is dedicated "To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy."

Other major compositions by Bernstein include "Prelude, Fugue and Riffs" for solo clarinet and jazz ensemble (1949); "Serenade" for violin, strings and percussion, (1954); "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story," (1960); "Chichester Psalms" for chorus, boy soprano and orchestra (1965); "Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers," commissioned for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and first produced there in 1971; "Songfest" a song cycle for six singers and orchestra (1977); "Divertimento," for orchestra (1980); "Halil," for solo flute and small orchestra (1981); "Touches," for solo piano (1981); "Missa Brevis" for singers and percussion (1988); "Thirteen Anniversaries" for solo piano (1988); "Concerto for Orchestra: Jubilee Games," (1989); and "Arias and Barcarolles" for two singers and piano duet (1988).

Bernstein also wrote a one-act opera, "Trouble in Tahiti," in 1952, and its sequel, the three-act opera, "A Quiet Place" in 1983. He collaborated with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets: "Fancy Free" (1944) and "Facsimile" (1946) for the American Ballet theater; and "Dybbuk" (1975) for the New York City Ballet. He composed the score for the award-winning movie "On the Waterfront" (1954) and incidental music for two Broadway plays: "Peter Pan" (1950) and "The Lark" (1955).

Bernstein contributed substantially to the Broadway musical stage. He collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green on "On The Town" (1944) and "Wonderful Town" (1953). In collaboration with Richard Wilbur and Lillian Hellman and others he wrote "Candide" (1956). Other versions of "Candide" were written in association with Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim et all. In 1957 he again collaborated with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, on the landmark musical "West Side Story," also made into the Academy Award-winning film. In 1976 Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner wrote "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Festivals of Bernstein's music have been produced throughout the world. In 1978 the Israel Philharmonic sponsored a festival commemorating his years of dedication to Israel. The Israel Philharmonic also bestowed on him the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1988. In 1986 the London Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre produced a Bernstein Festival. The London Symphony Orchestra in 1987 named him Honorary President. In 1989 the city of Bonn presented a Beethoven/Bernstein Festival.

In 1985 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Mr. Bernstein with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. He won eleven Emmy Awards and the Antoinette Perry Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater. His televised concert and lecture series started with the "Omnibus" program in 1954, followed by the extraordinary "Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic," in 1958 that extended over fourteen seasons. Among his many appearances on the PBS series "Great Performances" was the eleven-part acclaimed "Bernstein's Beethoven." In 1989, Bernstein and others commemorated the 1939 invasion of Poland in a worldwide telecast from Warsaw.

Bernstein's writings were published in "the Joy of Music" (1959), "Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts"(1961), "The Infinite Variety of Music" (1966), and "Findings" (1982). Each has been widely translated. He gave six lectures at Harvard University in 1972-1973 as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry. These lectures were subsequently published and televised as "The Unanswered Question."

Bernstein always rejoiced in opportunities to teach young musicians. His master classes at Tanglewood were famous. He was instrumental in founding the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute in 1982. He helped create a world class training orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. He founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Modeled after Tanglewood, this international festival was the first of its kind in Asia and continues to this day.

Bernstein received many honors. He was elected in 1981 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which gave him a Gold Medal. The National Fellowship Award in 1985 applauded his life-long support of humanitarian causes. He received the MacDowell Colony's Gold Medal; medals from the Beethoven Society and the Mahler Gesellschaft; the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest honor for the arts; a Tony award (1969) for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater; and dozens of honorary degrees and awards from colleges and universities. He was presented ceremonial keys to the cities of Oslo, Vienna, Bersheeva and the village of Bernstein, Austria, among others. National honors came from Italy, Israel, Mexico, Denmark, Germany (the Great Merit Cross), and France (Chevalier, Officer and Commandeur of the Legion d'Honneur). He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980.

World peace was a particular concern of Bernstein. Speaking at Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York in 1983, he described his vision of global harmony. His "Journey for Peace" tour to Athens and Hiroshima with the European Community Orchestra in 1985, commemorated the 40th anniversary of the atom bomb. In December 1989, Bernstein conducted the historic "Berlin Celebration Concerts" on both sides of the Berlin Wall, as it was being dismantled. The concerts were unprecedented gestures of cooperation, the musicians representing the former East Germany, West Germany, and the four powers that had partitioned Berlin after World War II.

Bernstein supported Amnesty International from its inception. To benefit the effort, he established the Felicia Montealegre Fund in 1987 in memory of his wife who passed away in 1978. In 1990, Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created in 1988 by the Japan Arts Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc. before his death on October 14, 1990.

Bernstein was the father of three children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina — and the grandfather of four: Francisca, Evan, Anya, and Anna.

Alternate Long Biography

From "A Total Embrace"

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (August 25, 1918- October 14, 1990) is generally recognized as music's most exuberant hero. Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, humanitarian, thinker, entertainer and adventurous spirit, he forged his many talents with an irresistible personality to transform the way people everywhere hear and appreciate music. He broke rules, shattered precedents and opened doors, insisting that the art of music could and should play a vital role in the lives of all people.

Bernstein's successes as a composer ranged from the Broadway stage (most notably, West Side Story) to concert halls all over the world, where his orchestral and choral works continue to thrive. As conductor of a vast repertoire, he was a dynamic presence on the podiums of the world's great orchestras for half a century, leaving a legacy that endures and continues to thrive through an uncommonly rich and diverse catalogue of over 500 recordings and filmed performances.

In Bernstein's life and work, American music came to life, found its energy and its conviction, and began to embrace its potential. Not only was he the first American to be appointed music director of a major American orchestra, but he also blazed the trail in Europe for other Americans to follow. He was the first American to conduct the Berlin Philhamonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw, among others. He was also the first American to conduct at La Scala.

From his earliest days, Bernstein was a true believer in the music of his time. The lasting popularity of the music of Mahler, Shostakovich and many other 20th-century masters owes much to his inspired advocacy. Around the world he championed American composers such as Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Samuel Barber, Roy Harris and Lukas Foss. The breadth of Bernstein's repertoire, the depth of his convictions, and the charismatic energy with which he articulated them, made him a superstar in the classical world. He is arguably the most famous conductor who ever lived. No American classical musician had ever achieved such universal stature, respect or sheer celebrity.

Leonard Bernstein came of age artistically as television became a part of everyday life, and he immediately saw its potential as a means to share and explore music with the mass audience. Through his imaginative programming ideas and his own engaging presence (most memorably, in the award-winning Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic) he made even the most rigorous elements of classical music an adventure in which everyone could join. A generation of Americans appreciates music because of Bernstein. That he achieved this without ever seeming to patronize or lecture his audience only reaffirmed how personal and how deeply felt his convictions were. In 1967, Bernstein wrote, "Life without music is unthinkable, music without life is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace."

In the new millennium, more than a decade after Bernstein's death in 1990, his life's work as an educator continues with the GRAMMY Foundation's Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning, which has evolved into the centerpiece of the Foundation's educational programming. The Leonard Bernstein Center has developed a model for elementary, middle and secondary school teachers based on his life long belief that the arts and the artistic process reinforce teaching and learning in all subjects. The model, called Artful Learning, is already being implemented in schools in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania and New York.

For all that is wonderful and unique about Leonard Bernstein's life and career, they tell a story that resonates with the American experience. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 25, 1918, he was the son of middle-class Jewish immigrants. His musical abilities became apparent when he was a child. As with many gifted American children, Bernstein had to prevail over his hard-working father's concern that music did not offer him a secure, stable future. Yet he continued to take piano lessons and began composing while attending the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard College, his musical studies became more serious. Shortly before graduating in 1939, Bernstein made an informal conducting debut with his own incidental music for Aristophanes' The Birds, and he also directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock. Accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson. In the summer of 1940, he began what would become a lifelong association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra's newly created summer festival at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts. There he met the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky and became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant.

When Bernstein was only 25, he held his first conducting post as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. It was in this capacity that, on November 14, 1943, he made his historic conducting debut. With only a few hours notice, he substituted for the ailing Bruno Walter at a Carnegie Hall concert. Overnight he became famous. The performance was broadcast nationwide on CBS radio and the next day made the front-page of the New York Times. This acclaim quickly led to invitations to conduct orchestras all over the world.

At the same time, Bernstein the composer was beginning to make his mark. He completed his Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah in 1943 and conducted its world premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the following year. The symphony won him the New York Music Critics Award. In 1944, Bernstein collaborated with his friend, the dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins, on a new ballet entitled Fancy Free. The acclaim that greeted Fancy Free convinced Robbins and Bernstein that the ballet contained the seeds of a full-fledged Broadway musical. With their friends Betty Comden and Adolph Green, they quickly created On the Town (1944) it became their first Broadway hit.

Bernstein's limitless energy and virtuosity were legend in New York in the 1940s, when he seemed to be everywhere at once. At the same time, he began building a conventional conducting career, with the advice and counsel of such mentors as Koussevitzky, Artur Rodzinski and Dimitri Mitropoulos virtually reinventing the role of the serious American composer, freely moving between Broadway and the concert hall. With Comden and Green and their friend Judy Holliday, he performed in nightclubs as part of The Revuers. The night before his impromptu New York Philharmonic debut, mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, at her Town Hall debut recital, gave the first performance in New York of Bernstein's "I Hate Music."

In 1945, Bernstein was named Music Director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1947. That same year, he conducted in Tel Aviv (then in Palestine) for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with Israel and its people. After the war, Bernstein made his conducting career truly international in scope, and in 1953 became the first American to conduct an opera at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, in acclaimed performances of Cherubini's Medea and Bellini's La sonnambula, both with Maria Callas in the title role. With the death of Koussevitzky in 1951, Bernstein's presence at Tanglewood grew, while he also served as a visiting professor at Brandeis University in Boston. That year he married the Chilean actress and pianist Felicia Montealegre.

Though he made recordings throughout the 1940s, Bernstein's recording career began in earnest in 1956, when he began a long exclusive association as a recording artist with Columbia Masterworks (now Sony Classical) and, beginning in the 1970s, he built an extensive catalogue of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.. Bernstein's fame grew quickly in America with his acclaimed and much-discussed concert-and-lecture appearances beginning in 1954 on the CBS television program Omnibus. In 1958 through the CBS network he presented the Young People's Concerts that he devised with the New York Philharmonic. These programs extended over fourteen seasons. His television work made him the most famous classical musician in America, and he soon became America's cultural emissary. In this role, he toured with the New York Philharmonic to Moscow in 1959. This Moscow performance was telecast on the CBS network. His television presence continued, including many appearances on the PBS series Great Performances. In 1989, Bernstein and others commemorated the 1939 invasion of Poland in a worldwide telecast from Warsaw. In the course of his career, he won eleven Emmy Awards.

Bernstein became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958. From then until 1969 he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. He holds the permanent title of Laureate Conductor. More than half of Bernstein's 500-plus recordings are with the New York Philharmonic. He had a vast repertoire encompassing all periods and styles. However, Bernstein may be best remembered for his performances and recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Copland, Haydn, Schumann, and Sibelius. Particularly notable were his performances of the Mahler symphonies with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, sparking a renewed interest in the works of Mahler.

Bernstein the composer followed the success of his Jeremiah Symphony with the Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety, which premiered in 1949 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Koussevitzky conducting and Bernstein as piano soloist. Bernstein himself conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of his Symphony No. 3: Kaddish, composed in 1963 and dedicated "To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy."

Other major compositions by Bernstein include Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for solo clarinet and jazz ensemble (1949); Serenade for violin, strings and percussion (1954); Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960); Chichester Psalms for chorus, boy soprano and orchestra (1965); Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dances r (1971), commissioned for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Songfest a song cycle for six singers and orchestra (1977); Divertimento for orchestra (1980); Halil for solo flute and small orchestra (1981); Touches for solo piano (1981); Missa Brevis for singers and percussion (1988); Thirteen Anniversaries for solo piano (1988); Concerto for Orchestra: Jubilee Games (1989); and Arias and Barcarolles for two singers and piano duet (1988).

Bernstein also wrote the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1952, and its sequel, the three-act opera A Quiet Place, in 1983. In addition to Fancy Free, he collaborated with choreographer Jerome Robbins on two other major ballets, Facsimile (1946) for American Ballet Theater and Dybbuk (1975) for the New York City Ballet. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for the award-winning movie On the Waterfront (1954), and he also composed incidental music for two Broadway plays, Peter Pan (1950) and The Lark (1955).

Bernstein's contribution to the Broadway musical stage, though limited to only five complete shows, was profoundly important. He again teamed with his On The Town collaborators Comden and Green in 1953 to write the score, in the space of only a few weeks, for Wonderful Town, which became a long-running Broadway hit. In collaboration with Richard Wilbur, Lillian Hellman and others he wrote Candide (1956). Though Candide enjoyed only a brief initial run on Broadway, its score has been held in such high regard that other versions of the show have been successfully realized by such writers as Hugh Wheeler, John Wells, John Cairdand Stephen Sondheim. In 1957 Bernstein finally realized a collaboration with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, the landmark musical West Side Story, which had a transforming influence on the Broadway musical and was made into an Academy Award-winning film in 1961. Bernstein's final Broadway effort, the 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, written with Alan Jay Lerner, ran briefly on Broadway. Like Candide, its score is widely admired, and excerpts are presented in A White House Cantata and the Orchestral Suite from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Festivals of Bernstein's music were produced throughout his life. In 1978 the Israel Philharmonic sponsored a festival honoring his years of dedication to Israel. In 1988 The Israel Philharmonic also bestowed on him the permanent title of Laureate Conductor. In 1986 the London Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre produced a Bernstein Festival. The London Symphony Orchestra in 1987 named him Honorary President. In 1989 the city of Bonn presented a Beethoven/Bernstein Festival. Since his death he has been frequently honored by festivals celebrating his accomplishments.

In 1985 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Mr. Bernstein with the Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award.

Many of Bernstein's writings were published in The Joy of Music (1959), Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (1961), The Infinite Variety of Music (1966), and Findings (1982). Each has been widely translated. Bernstein also delivered six lectures at Harvard University in 1972-1973 as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry. These lectures were subsequently published and televised as The Unanswered Question, and have been translated into five languages.

Bernstein always rejoiced in opportunities to teach young musicians. His master classes at Tanglewood were famous. He worked to establish the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute in 1982. He helped create a world-class training orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. He founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Modeled after Tanglewood, this international festival, including an educational component, was the first of its kind in Asia, and continues to thrive this day.

He established scholarship funds at Brandeis, Harvard, the IndianaUniversity School of Music, and Tanglewood. In memory of his wife he created scholarships for acting students at Columbia University, The Juilliard School and New York University.

Bernstein received many honors. In 1981, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which awarded him its Gold Medal. The National Fellowship Award in 1985 applauded his lifelong support of humanitarian causes. He received the MacDowell Colony's Gold Medal; medals from the Beethoven Society and the Mahler Gesellschaft; the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest honor for the arts; a special Tony Award (1969) for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater; and dozens of honorary degrees and awards from colleges and universities. He was presented ceremonial keys to many cities including Beersheva (Israel), the village of Bernstein (Austria), Oslo and Vienna.. National honors came from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France (Chevalier, Officer and Commandeur of the Legion d'Honneur), Germany (the Great Merit Cross), Israel, Italy, Japan (Praemium Imperiale) and Mexico. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980.

World peace was a particular concern of Bernstein. Speaking at Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York in 1983, he described his vision of global harmony. His Journey for Peace tour to Athens and Hiroshima with the European Community Youth Orchestra in 1985, commemorated the 40th anniversary of the atom bomb. In December 1989, Bernstein conducted the historic "Berlin Celebration Concerts" on both sides of the Berlin Wall, as it was being dismantled. The concerts were unprecedented gestures of cooperation, the orchestra included musicians representing the former East Germany, West Germany and the four powers that had partitioned Berlin after World War II.

Bernstein supported Amnesty International from its inception. To benefit the effort in 1987, he established the Felicia Montealegre Fund in memory of his wife who died in 1978.

Leonard Bernstein was the father of three children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina.

Leonard Bernstein's heroic role in contemporary musical life retains its luster and its meaning, even as the appreciation of his music grows and deepens. The work of the Leonard Bernstein Center reaffirms his commitment to education and enlightenment for the young; his compositions, recordings, filmed performances and lectures continue to illuminate the canon of classical music; and the example of his thrilling, turbulent and generous life seems nothing less than the American dream come true. The "total embrace" of Leonard Bernstein is firm, warm and enduring.

 
 
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