Meet a Composer: Leonard Bernstein

Meet a Composer:  Leonard Bernstein

Years Lived: 1918 - 1990

Period of Composing: Modern

Country: United States

Leonard Bernstein is perhaps one of the most influential composers, conductors, and music educators of the modern era. He composed for musicals (including West Side Story and Candide), as well as orchestral, choral, film (including On the Waterfront), opera, ballet, theater (including Peter Pan), piano, and chamber music. 

Leonard Bernstein was born in Massachusetts to Ukranian-Jewish parents. He became interested in music after hearing a piano performance, and began learning on a piano his cousin no longer wanted. Bernstein went on to pursue music at Harvard and began studying conducting when he was at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1940. 

Leonard Bernstein was appointed musical director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957. He was the first conductor to use television to bring his concerts to viewers nationwide and even internationally. Many musicians and music lovers credit his enormously popular televised Young People's Concerts—educational concerts which introduced music in a way that appealed to younger audiences—to inspiring their love of music or desire to become a musician.

Leonard Bernstein’s music is still widely popular today. His tuneful and lighthearted music is appealing to many audiences. The musical West Side Story has been revived on Broadway and a new movie is expected to come out in December of 2020. This 2018 Google Doodle celebrating Bernstein's 100th birthday includes his music from West Side Story.

Did you know?

Bernstein's grandmother wanted him to be named Louis, but his family called him Leonard. When he was 15 years old, he legally changed his name to Leonard.

Bernstein made his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic, with no rehearsal, when he substituted at the last minute for the conductor who had become suddenly sick with the flu. Because the concert was broadcast on the radio across the United States, Bernstein became instantly famous!

An accomplished pianist, Bernstein often played piano concertos while conducting the orchestra at the same time.

Bernstein won many awards including seven Emmys, sixteen Grammys, a lifetime Achievement Grammy, two Tonys, the George Peabody Award from Baltimore's own Peabody Conservatory, and Kennedy Center Honors. Three of his Emmys were for his Young People's Programs. He wrote and hosted 52 of them and they were shown on television nationally and internationally from 1958 until 1972. Watch a part of one of those programs in this YouTube video.

Listen to this Classics for Kids podcast about Leonard Bernstein and try the short quiz. More about Bernstein's Broadway music is included in this additional Classics for Kids podcast and quiz.

Can you find all the words about Bernstein in this Word Search from Making Music Fun? And then can you unscramble the words in this activity sheet about Candide from Classics for Kids?