Line #12 Music/LeonardBernstein


1	[[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leonardbernstein.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:312:''[[Music/{{REM}} "The other night I dreamt of knives]], [[Music/{{Document}} continental drift divide]], [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein mountains sit in a line--"]]'']]
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4	->''"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."\
5	"To be a success as a Broadway composer, you must be Jewish or gay. I'm both."''
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7	Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990), composer, lecturer, and conductor, was one of the most famous and successful American musicians of the 20th century.
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9	Born in Massachusetts to Russian Jewish immigrants, Bernstein began taking piano lessons when he was ten. He went on to study music at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music, learning from such musicians as Walter Piston, Fritz Reiner, Randall Thompson, and Isabelle Vengerova. He also studied in Paris with the legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. Bernstein became famous as a conductor when he substituted for Bruno Walter at a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, for which he later went on to serve as director from 1958 to 1969.
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11	Bernstein was particularly well known for conducting performances of works by his fellow American composers, such as Music/AaronCopland and Music/CharlesIves, as well as such Europeans as Music/JosephHaydn, Music/RobertSchumann, Music/IgorStravinsky, Music/DmitriShostakovich, and most especially Music/GustavMahler, whose symphonies he helped bring into the standard classical repertoire.
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13	Bernstein was also known for his innovative ideas of how to educate the public in music. He was one of the first classical musicians to make frequent television appearances, producing dozens of ''Young People's Concerts'' for Creator/{{CBS}} in the '50s and '60s. In 1973, he made a series of six videotaped lectures at Harvard University. He titled these lectures ''The Unanswered Question'', after a composition by Charles Ives. These lectures were later broadcast on Creator/{{PBS}}, and are available today in book form and on DVD.
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15	Bernstein composed works in a variety of genres, including symphonies, suites, pieces for choir and solo voice, and chamber music. His works for the stage include the ballets ''Fancy Free'' and ''Facsimile'', the comic operetta ''Literature/{{Candide}}'' (adapted from the novella by Creator/{{Voltaire}}), the one-act opera ''Trouble in Tahiti'' (later expanded upon by the sequel ''A Quiet Place''), incidental songs for a semi-musical production of ''[[Theatre/PeterPan1904 Peter Pan]]'', and the musicals ''Film/OnTheTown'', ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'', and ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' (and the latter's [[Film/WestSideStory1961 film adaptation]]), the work for which he is most well known. Bernstein also composed the score for ''Film/OnTheWaterfront'', and his music has appeared in other films ranging from ''Film/RearWindow'' to ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'' and in television productions from ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' to ''Series/UglyBetty'' and ''Series/{{Glee}}''.
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17	Bernstein was married to actress Felicia Cohn in 1951 and had three children. He was discreet about his sexuality, but he eventually left his wife and moved in with his male lover. However, when his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until her death in 1978. Bernstein's daughter would eventually confirm that he was bisexual.
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19	He died of pneumonia in 1990, not long after conducting a performance of works by Benjamin Britten and [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven]] at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. As his funeral procession made its way through Manhattan, construction workers are said to have waved their hardhats in the air and shouted: "Goodbye, Lenny!" He was buried with a conductor's score of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 placed on his chest.
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21	A movie about his life, ''{{Film/Maestro}}'', was directed by Creator/BradleyCooper and produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/MartinScorsese. It was released in November 2023.
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23	He is the partial TropeNamer for SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein, based on a lyric in the Music/{{REM}} song [[Music/{{Document}} "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"]]. And since the song came out three years prior to his death, it's entirely possible that Bernstein himself was aware of getting name-checked in it.
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25	Not to be confused with the equally famous composer and conductor, Music/ElmerBernstein; for one thing, their last names are pronounced differently.[[note]] Leonard's surname is pronounced "Burn-STINE", Elmer's surname is pronounced "Burn-STEEN". [[/note]]

Context Music / LeonardBernstein