Leonard Bernstein Research Paper

Dying on October 14, 1990 at age 72 from Pneumonia, this composer was one of the first American-born conductors to receive worldwide fame. This composer has struggled a lot on his musical career and one the struggle this composer faced is after the summer at Tanglewood, Massachusetts this composer founded himself out of work and that he has to take odd jobs transcribing music. This American-born conductor is Leonard Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When Bernstein was born, his birth name was Louis, but when he turned 16, he changes his name from Louis to Leonard because in family they would always called him Leonard or Lenny. Leonard started playing piano when he was age 10. When Bernstein

Bernstein made use of diverse elements. For example, in 1942, he composed biblical theme music called Symphony No. 1, or also called Jeremiah, then in 1949, he changed his element to jazz rhythms and composed Symphony No. 2, or The Age of Anxiety. Finally, in 1963, Symphony No. 3, or Kaddish, is Jewish liturgical themes. On the Town (1944, filmed 1949), Wonderful Town (1953, filmed 1958), Candide (1956), and very popular West Side Story (1957, filmed 1961), was all of Bernstein best-known works are the musicals. Bernstein also received an Academy Award nomination for the music in the film On the Waterfront (1954). In September 1971, Bernstein performed at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C and in 1989, he conducted Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (1824; Choral) to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bernstein received lots of awards. For example, he received the Praemium Imperiale in 1990 and he also received “an international prize created in 1988 by the Japan Arts Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts.” Before Bernstein died, he establishes The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc. by using the $100,000 prize