Leonard Bernstein: The Harvard Years, 1935-1939

by Leonard Bernstein, Claudia Swan (Editor)

This volume of essays and images explores Leonard Bernstein's Harvard period, and his achievements as scholar, teacher, composer. The book illuminates Bernstein's grappling with American music, and searching for one that synthesized the diverse influences he had heard (Jewish music, Stravinsky, American pop). Bernstein's composing career, like Gershwin's, gives the complexity of American music a sound, and as Gershwin went from Tin Pan Alley to the opera house, Bernstein experienced many different types of music before finding his voice among them.

91 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was the first conductor born and educated in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim. He is perhaps best known for his long conducting relationship with the New York Philharmonic, which included the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series, and his compositions including West Side Story, Candide, and On the Town. He is known to baby boomers primarily as the first classical music conductor to make many television appearances, all between 1954 and 1989. Additionally he had a formidable piano technique and was a highly respected composer. He is one of the most influential figures in the history of American classical music, championing the works of American composers and inspiring the careers of a generation of American musicians.