On the heels of Oscar nods for The Irishman and Marriage Story, Netflix has secured the rights to the in-development biopic of Leonard Bernstein from Bradley Cooper. The Oscar nominee will direct and star throughout the film; he moreover co-wrote the script with Josh Singer and is among the many many producers. The deal marks Paramount's departure from the Amblin mission. Producing alongside Cooper, based mostly on Deadline, are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg (who's moreover directing one different upcoming Bernstein-related mission: West Aspect Story), Todd Phillips (beneath his and Cooper's Joint Effort banner), Kristie Macosko Krieger, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Fred Berner, and Amy Durning. Manufacturing is anticipated to start out early subsequent 12 months. The {film} will take care of the connection between the celebrated composer and his partner, Felicia Montealegre. The two wed in 1951, no matter Bernstein's homosexuality being extensively uncontested. About 25 years later, Bernstein left to be with a male companion, returning to his marriage when Montealegre was recognized with most cancers. He was collectively together with her until she died in 1978. That they'd three children collectively-Jamie, Alexander, and Nina-who've labored rigorously with Cooper to develop the mission. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Bulletin Time ARTICLE

The summer concert spotlighted Bernstein's talents as a composer, his gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, his role as an inspiration to a new generation of musicians, and his presence as a driving musical force at Tanglewood from 1940–1990. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was joined by members of the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival-all ensembles that were important to Bernstein and his career. The orchestra was conducted by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart, Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams, San Francisco Symphony Music Director and one of Bernstein's close associates and friends Michael Tilson Thomas, and National Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Christoph Eschenbach, who won the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival. Host and six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald was joined onstage at Tanglewood by guest artists Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Kian Soltani, Nadine Sierra, Susan Graham, Isabel Leonard, Thomas Hampson, Jessica Vosk (Wicked), and Tony Yazbeck (On the Town), with James Darrah serving as director and Joshua Bergasse serving as choreographer. This multi-media event also includes video montages about Bernstein's life and messages from people around the world who have been inspired by his legacy as a musician and as a dominant cultural figure of his time. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} SEE THE PLAYBILL PAGE

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County recently announced the launch of the 11th season of its internationally acclaimed Jazz Roots series with "Leonard Bernstein 100 and Beyond," a centennial celebration of one of America's greatest and best-loved music superstars, on Friday, Nov. 9. The one-night-only tribute to the world-renowned composer, conductor and pianist features performances by vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway and Jon Secada, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, pianist Shelly Berg and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. Berg is the Jazz Roots artistic advisor, a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy nominated arranger, orchestrator, and producer. He has appeared as a performer and lecturer throughout the United States as well as in Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Japan, Romania and Venezuela. Recent projects include recording and/or performing with Tony Bennett, Seal, Lizz Wright, Andra Day, Clint Holmes, Renée Fleming, and Arturo Sandoval. An award-winning educator with 39 years of leadership in higher education, Shelly Berg is Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. "It is right, and it is thrilling to celebrate Bernstein's genius at the Center," says Berg."From jazz to classical music, from the concert hall to theaters, movies and more, few artists have done more than America's beloved Lenny to instill a love of music in performers and audiences alike." READ THE FULL South Florida Times ARTICLE

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was a world-renowned musician throughout his entire adult life. He served as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, recording hundreds of performances. His books and the televised Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established him as a leading educator. This year's world-wide celebration of Bernstein's 100th birthday honors the composer, conductor, educator, musician, cultural ambassador, and humanitarian. This amazing lecture series (The unanswered Question ), is an interdisciplinary overview about the evolution of Western European classical music from Bach through the 20th century crisis and beyond. Mr. Bernstein uses Chomskian Linguistics to provide a framework to illustrate how music and all the arts evolved toward greater and greater levels of ambiguity/expressivity throughout history and he divides music into; Phonology (the study of sound); Syntax (the study of structure) and; Semantics (the study of meaning). Watch the attached video.

Before I dive into this week's edition, I gotta say I'm all about this photo of Leonard Bernstein baring some chest and holding a cocktail. Times classical music critic Mark Swed has a thorough accounting to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth, which is Saturday. "Had he not conducted exuberant and shamanistic concerts seeming to inject music from his inner being directly into your bloodstream, not written those questing, profound final works, not exhaustively drained his herculean supply of sexual energy, he might not have so early deteriorated into the worn-out wreck who died at 72," he writes. "Yet had he not been all those things, would this composer, conductor, pianist, educator and television personality who avidly embraced all aspects and genres of music become America's greatest musical figure?" Los Angeles Times READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE

Jamie Bernstein can't call her childhood a typical one. On any given weekend, she might find Lauren Bacall, Isaac Stern, Richard Avedon, Mike Nichols, Stephen Sondheim, Lillian Hellman or Sidney Lumet hanging out at her house. Jamie's father was Leonard Bernstein. The celebrated conductor, composer of West Side Story and host of television's Young People's Concerts was born 100 years ago, Aug. 25, 1918. To mark the centennial, Jamie Bernstein has published Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein, a frank recollection of family life and the struggle to find herself amid the "blinding light" that was Leonard Bernstein, who died in 1990.      photo: Bob Serating /New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives READ THE FULL ARTICLE w/EDITED Q&A

Some wanted to talk about his legacy. Others recalled how he was inspirational or what "Lenny" was like as a person. The president of Bard College celebrated his political and social engagement. Violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Lara Downes cited him as a continuing touchstone. Leonard Bernstein would have turned 100 years old Saturday, and in honor of the centennial, The Times reached out to the music world - pianist Andre Watts, lyricist Stephen Schwartz, Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon and more - to share stories about the legendary composer and conductor. After Bernstein died in 1990, a newspaper cartoon showed a flag planted on planet Earth. It simply read: "Leonard Bernstein Lived Here." If the edited remembrances below are any indication, the man and musician remains as beloved as ever. READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE

Over the last few months, during Classical 101's Bernstein Summer, you've enjoyed our Bernstein Minutes on-air and online, along with countless performances of Leonard Bernstein's fabulous music in the run-up to the Aug. 25 centennial of his birth.  The big day arrives Saturday, and The American Sound is marking the occasion with a special Bernstein Centennial celebration honoring the man and musician known the world over as Lenny. Enjoy everything that made Bernstein arguably America's most important classical musician: performances of some of his best-loved works - including Candide and West Side Story - selections from path-breaking pianist Lara Downes' new recording in homage to Bernstein, For Lenny, and Bernstein conducting his own Divertimento for Orchestra and a fun piece by his friend and mentor Aaron Copland. And make the party even better with Episode 4 of Classical 101's film music podcast, SoundReels, which explores Bernstein's music for the film adaptation of West Side Story. Join us for a Bernstein Centennial celebration on The American Sound, 6 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Tuesday on Classical 101.
SEE THE PAGE

The composer's letters and songs fit together in a revue that pays tribute to Bernstein's enduring legacy. Dan Chouinard, Prudence Johnson, Bradley Greenwald and Diana Grasselli toast Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday in "Dear Lenny." Six excellent musicians perform a new Open Eye Figure Theatre production; "Dear Lenny: Bernstein's Life in Songs & Letters," running from Aug 16-27, but the surest sign of the revue's cozy charm may be three feet. Specifically, the toes on three feet, rhythmically tapping during "I Can Cook, Too." That song, from "On the Town," is a rare lyricless moment in the nearly sold-out "Dear Lenny," which is heavily weighted toward Leonard Bernstein's forays into musical theater, with only snippets of his classical music.   Photos by Dan Norman READ THE FULL Minneapolis Star Tribune ARTICLE

Leonard Bernstein unquestionably was one of the most astonishing and magnetic personalities in the world of music. He bestrode the musical scene in the second half of the 20th century like few others: composer, conductor, pianist, educator; but it was as a great communicator – of music and through music – that every facet of his life and legacy is bound together. He was a Renaissance man, a multifaceted genius, but it was his career as a composer that meant the very most to him. "The Best of Bernstein" is a 3-CD compilation featuring some of Bernstein's very best recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. The album is programmed as a celebration of Bernstein's work as both a composer and conductor and features excerpts from Candide and West Side Story as well as ever-popular works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Gershwin, Mozart, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and others. The Best of Bernstein is WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

To celebrate the Leonard Bernstein Centennial, The Classical Station is offering for a limited time The Best of Bernstein 3-CD compilation featuring some of Leonard Bernstein's very best recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. This album is not available for purchase. You can only get it by supporting your non-profit classical radio station. The Best of Berstein is programmed as a celebration of Bernstein's work as both composer and conductor. The playlist includes excerpts from Candide and West Side Story as well as ever-popular works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Gershwin, Mozart, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and others. The tracks on this 3-CD set are taken from Deutsche Grammophon recordings made between the years 1978 and 2000. It can be yours with our thanks when you become a sustaining member of The Classical Station. SEE THE 89.9WCPE - The Classical Station, Wake Forest NC PAGE

This week's Album of the Week also benefits KDFC: San Francisco ! Become a member of KDFC for just $10 a month (or $120 all at once) and we will send you this week's Album of the Week, "The Best of Bernstein." It's a special 3-CD set featuring Bernstein the conductor, the composer and the performer, created especially for public radio – not available anywhere else! We only have a limited quantity of these special sets, so when they are gone they are gone! Don't miss your chance to celebrate one of the greatest American musicians of all time AND support your favorite classical radio station at the same time. For the Week of August 20th - The Best of Bernstein is the KDFC - Album of the Week 

This week's Album of the Week also benefits KUSC: Los Angeles ! Become a member of KDFC for just $10 a month (or $120 all at once) and we will send you this week's Album of the Week, "The Best of Bernstein." It's a special 3-CD set featuring Bernstein the conductor, the composer and the performer, created especially for public radio – not available anywhere else! We only have a limited quantity of these special sets, so when they are gone they are gone! Don't miss your chance to celebrate one of the greatest American musicians of all time AND support your favorite classical radio station at the same time. For the week of August 20, 2018, The Best of Bernstein is KUSC - Album of the Week 

Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Flamboyant, inspired and voracious in his conducting style, Bernstein got his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1943. He was one of the first American-born conductors to lead world-class orchestras. He composed the score for the musical West Side Story. After battling emphysema, he died at the age of 72. Bernstein's mark on the musical landscape is indelible, and everybody loves Lenny, but how much do you really know about this prolific composer, pianist, conductor, and activist? In celebration for the Bernstein centennial, CLICK HERE to take the WFMT: Chicago quiz and find out! p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} It's simply too difficult to create a list of recordings made by conductor Leonard Bernstein that could be called "The Best of Lenny" or "The Definitive Bernstein List." Instead, this Lenny List calls to your attention 10 recordings - two featuring Bernstein conducting protégés - illustrating the extraordinary eclecticism of America's greatest musical polymath of the 20th century. For those interested in building their own Best of Lenny collections, here's where to start. READ WOSU public media post In no particular order.  

"Dear Lenny. I have faith in very little these days … problems with the Soviet Union, problems with Cuba, problems with South Africa – get me down … Nothing seems to make much sense any more…" So begins a heartfelt letter to America's greatest 20th century composer and conductor, written in June 1978 by a 15-year-old girl who'd never met him, but who believes, four decades later, that Leonard Bernstein changed the course of her life. The letter was one of many penned by Elizabeth TeSelle from Nashville, Tennessee, to her hero, all written in the late 1970s during a time of personal turmoil. But Bernstein never read it because it was never sent. It has remained in Elizabeth's diary, among dozens like it. Now a university administrator in her 50s, TeSelle is one of several people whose lives were directly influenced by Bernstein and who told me their stories for a radio documentary I have produced for the BBC World Service called Leonard Bernstein and Me, presented by the broadcaster Jon Tolansky. READ THE FULL Guardian ARTICLE

Tanglewood has announced that its star-studded gala concert, celebrating Leonard Bernstein's centennial on August 25, 2018, will be recorded by Great Performances and broadcast on PBS, bringing this event to audiences in their homes throughout America, Europe, and Asia on December 28, 2018. The concert will be hosted by Audra McDonald and directed by James Darrah; among the names appearing in the concert are John Williams, Thomas Hampson, Isabel Leonard, Nadine Sierra, Susan Graham, and more. They will be joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. This expansive cast will be paying tribute to the Bernstein's many contributions to the arts of music and theatre, as well as what he brought to Tanglewood Festival from 1940 to 1990. The program includes Bernstein's "Overture to Candide," "Phaedrus from Serenade," "Meditation 3 from Mass for cello and orchestra," and selections from "West Side Story," including "Jet Song," "Maria," "A boy like that," "I have a love," and a quintet for "Tonight." SEE THE OPERAWIRE PAGE

Leonard Bernstein's progressive musical West Side Story is having a moment. Steven Spielberg has been casting a highly anticipated new film adaptation, with a script by Tony Kushner - and just last week, a new Broadway production was announced, with director Ivo van Hove and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. In the mist of all this clamor comes West Side Story Reimagined, a new album by drummer-bandleader Bobby Sanabria, releasing this Friday on Jazzheads. 
PHOTO: GABRIEL MORENO / TABLEAUX MULTIMEDIA READ THE FULL WBGO: Newark NJ ARTICLE   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

There will be no escaping the heat or Lenny. Brace yourself for a Leonard Bernstein summer. The greatest and most inspiring all-around musician this country (or arguably any country) has produced would have turned 100 Aug. 25. "Bernstein 100, the official international centenary celebration, has reached just about everywhere ("Wonderful Town" in Latvian, anyone?). Recordings, new and reissues alike, have arrived in a steady stream. New memoirs and videos are on the market. Hollywood has been a little late to jump on the Bernstein bandwagon, but two Bernstein biopics are in the works. One will star and be directed by Bradley Cooper, the other promises a Jake Gyllenhaal Lenny. A Steven Spielberg "West Side Story" is also in the works. The Hollywood Bowl, however, has not been late. Tuesday night, Gustavo Dudamel opened the Los Angeles Philharmonic summer concert season with an all-Bernstein program as part of L.A.'s contribution to this summer's incomparable cornucopia of Bernsteiniana planned all across the land. This makes sense. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE

Leonard Bernstein's ghost has hung discreetly around the grounds of Tanglewood for the past 28 years, ever since the maestro died in the fall of 1990. This summer, Lenny's ghost will pretty much have the run of the place. Bernstein would have turned 100 on August 25. To observe the occasion, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is basically turning this Tanglewood season into an eight-week running birthday party. Beginning on the BSO's opening weekend in early July, and continuing through the next-to-last concert of the season in late August, Bernstein will be toasted, celebrated, remembered -- and mainly, performed. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} SEE Connecticut Public Radio's quick summary of the Bernstein/Tanglewood relationship

The great American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein had a 50-year association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood, the orchestra's summer home in the Berkshire Hills. Bernstein, a Lawrence native, was a student at Tanglewood in 1940, and as a conductor returned virtually every summer to work with both the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center (student) orchestras. On Aug. 29, 1990, he led the BSO in a dramatic performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony as well as the "Four Sea Interludes" from Britten's "Peter Grimes" for what would become his final Tanglewood appearance. He died on Oct. 14, 1990. This year is the 100th anniversary of Bernstein's birth, so it's not too surprising that his centennial is the centerpiece of Tanglewood's summer season. Still, the celebration is taking place in quite spectacular fashion. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Worcester Telegram ARTICLE

The Leonard Bernstein Office says that more than 2,300 events have been planned worldwide to celebrate the centennial of the composer and conductor - the vast majority of them only touching on some aspect of this protean figure, whose reputation seems to grow with each passing year. Here in Los Angeles, however, you can experience much of Bernstein's world in one place: The Skirball Cultural Center is hosting the "Leonard Bernstein at 100" exhibition through Sept. 2, a week after his 100th birthday. Assembled by the Grammy Museum in its first project honoring a classical musician, the exhibition has film clips, scores, heirlooms and more. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, through Sept. 2. READ THE FULL LATimes ARTICLE

The energetic and thrilling sounds of American composer Leonard Bernstein have influenced much of our listening experience and music-making today.  Join MTPR this August 20-26 as we commemorate the 100th birthday of the composer, conductor, performer, educator, and humanitarian. Montana Public Radio wants to hear from listeners reflecting on the impact Bernstein's music, performances, educational programs, and Bernstein himself may have had on you, your upbringing, your family, or your own love of music.  From West Side Story to his Young People's Concerts and his legendary performances, Leonard Bernstein changed the world.   What has the music of Leonard Bernstein meant to you? Commemorate Bernstein's 100th birthday on the radio. Leave a message at (406) 243-4366 and Montana Public Radio will broadcast your comments during "Bernstein 100 Week," August 20-26, 2018.     * Morning Classics, Monday - Friday, August 20-24, 9:00 - 10:55 a.m., features music composed or conducted by Leonard Bernstein;   *Allan R. Scott hosts the Monday Music Special, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m., August 20, incorporating listener reminiscences about the role that Bernstein's compositions and performances have played in their lives into an hour of Bernstein's music;   *What I Like About Jazz with John Arvish highlights jazz renditions of Bernstein's music, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22;   *On the afternoon of Saturday, August 25 (Bernstein's 100th birthday), Allan R. Scott pays tribute to Bernstein's well-known and lesser-known compositions, from symphonic to theaterical, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m., following the opera;   *Sunday, August 26, at 8:00 p.m., the Helena Symphony presents a special Bernstein 100! concert, recorded in May at Helena's Civic Center, featuring the On the Waterfront film score, Chichester Psalms, and music from Wonderful Town, West Side Story, and Candide.  You'll hear the Helena Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, several renowned guest artists, and a special tribute to Bernstein, narrated by MTPR's Michael Marsolek. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Leonard Bernstein, famous for composing the music for West Side Story and for being the only lyric anyone can remember from R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", is getting a biopic courtesy of Cary Fukunaga. Now, it looks like Fukunaga has found his leading man: Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal is coming for that Oscar, so you better watch out. The actor has joined Cary Fukunaga's new Leonard Bernstein biopic – a part that will likely offer Gyllenhaal the chance to rack up awards galore. Bernstein was an acclaimed composer, musician and conductor, responsible for the music of West Side Story, among other things. Bernstein was an outspoken figure, and often drew controversy for his political and personal opinions, including speaking out agains the Vietnam War. Fukunaga's biopic will chronicle Bernstein's rise to fame, and also his personal life – while the composer married Chilean-born American actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre, Bernstein was reportedly gay. Bernstein's West Side Story collaborator Arthur Laurents once said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." READ THE FULL /FILM ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

If you combine Lin-Manuel Miranda's command of the stage, Hans Zimmer's skilled compositions and Gustavo Dudamel's conducting flair, you could access a peephole view of the 20th century's quintessential Renaissance man, Leonard Bernstein. Far more multifaceted than any millennial, Bernstein is the youngest ever conductor of the New York Philharmonic, the composer of both stage and film versions of West Side Story not to mention the opera Candide, and the person who brought classical music played by young people to television with Young People's Concerts as The Beatles were storming The Ed Sullivan Show. This year marks the centennial of Bernstein's birth. "Leonard Bernstein at 100" runs at the Skirball Cultural Center April 26 through Sept. 2.  READ THE FULL LA Weekly ARTICLE

To people under 50, Leonard Bernstein is a line in an R.E.M. song. But from the 1957 Broadway debut of West Side Story (for which he wrote the music) to his stint conducting Beethoven at the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Massachusetts-born composer and conductor was among the most protean and dynamic characters alive. Whatever you think he was, Bernstein, who died in 1990, was always something else: musician, yes, but also quasi-closeted bisexual, social-justice activist, public intellectual, liberal philanthropist, TV star. "When I describe him to kids," says UCLA musicologist Robert Fink, "I say, ‘You have to imagine Gustavo Dudamel, Steven Spielberg, Lang Lang, and Bill Nye the Science Guy.'" Bernstein's career had two acts. In the first, he was an American conductor-leading the New York Philharmonic, working on Candide and On the Waterfront, and inaugurating the Kennedy Center. But his composition fell off after the critical savaging of his 1971 work Mass, about a priest's crisis of faith. Bernstein retreated, then reappeared for his second act as an international celebrity, conducting orchestras in London, Vienna, and Tel Aviv. READ THE FULL Los Angeles Magazine ARTICLE   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein died nearly 30 years ago, but his legacy continues to loom large. That's because his prodigious talent and charisma made him a superstar on many fronts, as the composer of "West Side Story" and "Candide," film scores, symphonies, ballets and operas. And he was a conductor who could find the unexplored depths of many scores. He also had great skills in conveying his musical insights, especially to children, and it made him a TV star with the classic Young People's Concerts. 2018 marks Bernstein's 100th birthday and Lyric Opera of Chicago is commemorating that milestone with a special concert this weekend featuring a number of major artists. Among them is Broadway star, Tony Award nominee and Evanston native Kate Baldwin, who joins Eddie Arruza in discussion and performance.

WATCH THE SEGMENT

As a composer, critics argued, Leonard Bernstein was a dabbler. A dilettante. A musical magpie who filched other people's ideas. A part-time composer who hogged the spotlight as the New York Philharmonic's flamboyant conductor. "Bernstein does not compose with either originality or much skill," wrote composer Virgil Thomson from his bully pulpit as music critic for the New York Herald Tribune. "Melodic distinction" and "concentration of thought" were missing, Thomson added. This was typical of the opposition Bernstein faced during his composing career. Although Bernstein cut a famously ebullient, self-confident public figure, the insults clearly hurt him in private. "You know what's made me really distraught?" Bernsteain complained toward the end of his composing life. "I am only going to be remembered as the man who wrote 'West Side Story.' " READ THE FULL Minneapolis Star Tribune ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

There's that video that's made the rounds on YouTube for years-Leonard Bernstein not conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the Finale of the Haydn Symphony No. 88. Right, not conducting: It's an encore, and as the applause dies away, he starts the music, then drops his hands to his side. Coming up on Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection on WRTI 90.1, February 3 at 5 pm. For the rest of the movement he smiles, nods, purses his lips, raises his eyebrows, looks up, looks down, looks sideways, but does nothing that we would call "conducting." The performance is crystalline. It almost seems a joke, as if Bernstein were saying, "I know what you think of my jumping and gyrating and gesticulating on the podium. But I don't need to do that. Watch this and find out what I'm all about."     The centennial anniversary of Leonard Bernstein is coming up on August 25, 2018.  LISTEN TO WRTI: Philadelphia - Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

He was a wunderkind: the youngest music director ever to lead the New York Philharmonic and the genius behind the score to "West Side Story." The late Leonard Bernstein would have turned 100 next year, and on Friday, the Boston Symphony Orchestra kicks off a new season dedicated to the Massachusetts-born composer-conductor, one of America's most famous maestros. Carnegie Hall gets into the act, too, launching its 2017-18 season on Oct. 4 with a Bernstein program by the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. And the New York Philharmonic will perform Bernstein's complete symphonic works in a centennial remembrance that starts Oct. 25. Andris Nelsons, the Boston Symphony's music director, calls Bernstein an "iconic figure" who influenced generations - including his own. "Growing up in Latvia in the 1980s and '90s, Leonard Bernstein always loomed large in the hearts and minds of all of us who aspired to a life in music, including mine," Nelsons told The Associated Press in an email. "It was Bernstein's exuberance, passion and all-encompassing love of music that convinced all who encountered him that music was essential, affirming and necessary for a full life, in which beauty and inspiration ignite the very best of the human spirit," said Nelsons, now in his fourth season leading the BSO. SEE AP - WTOP PAGE for list of centennial celebrations p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Congratulations to Crossover Media Artist: Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic on their 2014 GRAMMY Nomination for: 'Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps' on Sony Classical, in the Best Album Notes category. The 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards will air Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, on CBS.

A century ago, on May 29, 1913, the premiere performance of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring shocked a Paris audience that included Debussy, Ravel, Picasso, and Proust. Audience members rioted at the work's "unexpected eruption of rebarbative dissonances, off-kilter rhythms, obsessive-compulsive ostinati and agitated mood-swinging dynamics," as Jonathan Cott puts it in the album notes to This new release (with the Original Cover Artwork) of the legendary recording by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, celebrates the 100th Anniversary Of this historic concert event. With several recent concert performances of The Rite of Spring under their belts, Bernstein and the orchestra headed to the Colorama Ballroom in Brooklyn's Hotel St. George to make what would prove to be one of the most enduring recordings of this work that the conductor characterized as "only one of your everyday volcanic masterpieces...a miraculous new creation of such originality and power that still today it shocks and overwhelms us." After 55 years, this recording still sounds as galvanizing and revolutionary as Le Sacre du Printemps itself.