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Leonard Bernstein

By Amy Lyn Walker

Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence,

Massachusetts. He’s family emigrated to the United States. They were Russian

Jews. As a young child, Leonard learned to play the piano and he attended

Harvard University. He attended courses and lectures held by Edward

Burlingham Hill, Water Piston, and Arthur Tillmann Merritt. He received his

diploma in 1939.

He studied under Isabella Vengerova, a talented piano player at the Curtis

Institute in Philadelphia, Fritz Reiner, an orchestral conductor, and Randall

Thompson for orchestration. Bernstein specialized in orchestral conducting and

went to Tanglewood from 1940-1941. He became a pupil of Sergei A.

Koussevitzky, and became his assistant in 1942. He was appointed, only one

year later, by Artur Rodzinski as the assistant director of music at the New York

Philharmonic Orchestra. After he stepped in for Bruno Walter, who became ill,

and he conducted a concert of this great orchestra. After this he worked with

the New York City Orchestra.

In 1947 he conducted the Isreal Philharmonic Orchestra, for which he was

the musical advisor until 1949. After this, he went on a long tour with

Koussevitzky. After Koussevitzky’s death, Bernstein taught orchestral conducting

at Tanglewood, and also worked at Brandeis University. In 1957, he joined the

New York Philharmonic, which he conducted alternately with Dimitri

Mitropoulos. From 1958-1969, he was the musical director of this orchestra

before he was appointed laureate conductor for life. He was the first American

conductor to be invited to the Scala, and he conducted there.

From 1969...