Leonard Bernstein

About

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was a conductor, composer and pianist from Lawrence, Massachusetts who rose to become one of the first conductors of classical music to be born in educated in the United States and is generally considered to be one of the greatest American classical musicians of the 20th Century. Since earning tenure as the music director for the New York Philharmonic in 1957, Bernstein led the orchestra through its biggest era of growth and change as the first American to lead the Philharmonic. As a composer, Bernstein is best known for his ballet/musical West Side Story and the comic opera based on Voltaire's famed novella Candide, both of which are considered to be some of the greatest American compositions for orchestra and stage. Despite the conductor's many contributions to 20th Century American music, Leonard Bernstein is perhaps best known popularly as an educator, with his televised Young People's Concerts standing as his most epochal experiment in educating young people on music by using the growing power of communication through the medium of television. All in all, Leonard Bernstein stands as one of the most important American musical figures of the 20th Century, with an long-lasting influence that continues to permeate all aspects of American music to this day.