Winter 1996 Does WEST SIDE STORY Speak to Our to Today's World? Readers
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• rt News for friends of Leonard Bernstein Winter 1996 Does WEST SIDE STORY Speak To Our to Today's World? Readers EST SIDE STORY was a Wco llaboration on the order of one of those once-in-an-eon galactic convergences. Never before or again would Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents co ll aborate on a project all together. Yet with this single work, the three authors redefined the boundaries of what it was possible to convey in a Broadway musical. Each new generation seems to rediscover WEST SIDE STORY for itself. High school kids every where leap at the chance to per form WEST SIDE STORY in their school auditoriums; the finger snaps, slinky bebop and hot mam bos speak directly to them - no translation necessary. At Tanglewood last summer, the stu dent orchestra tore into SYM PHONIC DANCES FROM "WEST SIDE STORY" with all their might; the percussion players, in particular, looked as if they could not believe their good fort une. This year, WEST SIDE Leonard Bernstein rehearses "America" with the Shark girls and Stephen Sondheim at the piano. STORY is getting more attention than usual. A major tour of the musical is making its way around by Jan Herman gave them a simple piece of composer Leonard Bernstein, lyri the world, and there is an intrigu cist Stephen Sondheim, director advice. "Cast as young as possi ing new recording of the songs rthur Laurents, who ble," but change nothing else. In choreographer Jerome Robbi ns - performed by contemporary pop wrote the book for a recent te lephone interview from sid estepped the question of age in ular artists. WEST SIDE STORY, hi s beachfront home in Quogue, casting the two street gangs who Mr. Bernstein's accomplish Arejects the notion th at NY, where he has li ved for the frame the show's tragic love story. ments reached far beyond musi "At the time, we didn't want to the most electrifying musical of last 40 years, Laurents, 78, said cal theatre. He conducted; he the 1950s doesn 't fit in the 1990s. he wouldn't think of changing so face how young these kids were taught; he wrote books; his com "People who say it's dated are much as a word to contemporize when they got involved in gangs," positions spanned the genres. And people who take theater li tera ll y," the script. "Once you start that, he said . "Today it's quite obvious yet, for better or worse, most peo he explains. "Theater is not liter it's like pulling a card out of a they' re even yo unger. " ple on this earth who have heard al. It never was." house of cards. You have to He contends that even though of Leonard Bernstein know him So when the producers of the keep it where it was, or the th ing the two gangs in WEST SIDE as "the guy who wrote WEST new touring version of WEST fa lls in. " STORY do battle with quaint SIDE STORY" - the movie! • SIDE STORY came to him for Laurents recounts that he and weapons next to the arsenal of suggestions on mounting their $3 - the creative team for the origin al today's gangbangers, the Sharks million, 33-city reviva l, Laurents 1957 Broadway production - (continued on page 5) The BETA Fund BETA Fund Supports Moab Music Festival's Educational Outreach Program where he gave an assembly before Sa n Juan County High School stu dents on the role of the cond uc tor. "We're very pleased to reach BETA th e students in San Ju an Co unty," Barrett sa id. "And we hope this FUND will be a first step in laying a fou nd ati on for future work in that community." Plans for the ach yea r th e Moab Music 1996 Educational Outreach EFestival's Educational Program are currently in the Outreach Program brings students works and include a poss ibl e pre in ru ral Grand County, Utah, into view concert in Blanding as well direct contact with world-class as at least one assembly in the professiona l musicians. And each schools there. Barrett and year, the founders and organizers Cellist Felix Wurman instructs students at MMF's Educatio11al Outreach Program . Tomkins have already begun dis of the Festi va l receive letters, cussions with ed ucators in Grand and Sa n Ju an counties about phone calls and personal visits Program in area schools. During soprano Lucy Schaufer, coloratu other ways to broaden the pro from parents who say the pro the first two years of the Fes ti val, ra Cyndia Sieden, baritone Patrick gra m's effectiveness. gram has had a noticea ble posi performers wo rked with stud ents Mason, and pianist Stephen Bl ier, As in past years, the 1995 tive impact on th eir children. in music teacher Susan Miller's who, along with Barrett, serves as Moab Music Festival Ed ucational What began in 1991 as the Gra nd County High School stri ng co-director of the New York Outreach Program culminated in brainchild of violist Leslie cl ass . This year, the Moa b Music Festi va l of Song. The students the Fami ly Picnic concert in Tomkins and her husband Festi va l's Ed ucational Outreach heard song in a broad variety of Moab's Old City Park. During Michael Barrett, a conducting Program was expanded to include musical styles, with particular this concert, string students have protege and fri end of Leonard a series of master classes in which emphasis on the range and char the opportunity to perform pub Bernstein, has since blossomed musicians worked indi viduall y acteristics of each vo ice type. licl y alongs id e professional musi into an event that adults and chil with students several times a week. The Festiva l has also expanded cians brought in by the Festival. dren in this community look for This year, fo r the first tim e, beyond Moa b. This year Maestro This year, students from the pro ward to every September. wind and brass musicians were Barrett travelled to Blanding, gram's master classes performed Origina ll y conceived as a way included in the Festiva l's lin eup. Uta h, 80 miles south of Moab, Antonio Viva ldi's FLUTE CON to bring classical chamber music Trumpet player Stephen Burns CERTO in the string orchestra. to this remote region of southeast and trombonist Martin Demos, Moab Music Festi val concerts ern Utah, the 1995 Moa b Music along with flutist Tim Day, bas co ntinue to draw larger an d larger Festival included six regular series soonist Melange Sanguinetti and crowds, but the Festiva l's greatest concerts as we ll as the annual oboe player Pam Epple, were success, according to Barrett and Colorado River Concert, held in a among the featured musicians in Tomkins, is measured in its natural grotto 30 miles down the Festival's centerpiece: Igor impact on th e lives of those in the river from Moab. Strav in sky's L'HISTOIRE DU co mmunity. Every year the Moab As part of th e Festival's ongo SOLD AT. These musicians also Music Festival Educational ing mission, many of the profes spent time in the sc hoo ls talking Outreach Program fuels creativity sional musicians who perform with the band students about and insp ires imagin ation in many throughout the seri es also partici their respective instruments. 2 yo ung people. That is the most pate in the Educational Outreach The 1995 outreach program lasting legacy of al l. • also included two assemb li es in Gra nd Co unty - one for high school and one for middle sc hool stud en ts - led by Maestro Artistic Director Leslie To111ki11 s and Barrett, and feat uring mezzo- Music Director Michael Barrett. Legacy in Action Leonard Bernstein Conducting Laureate by Alexander Bernstein they can be learners and creators and scholars and researchers, t the Leonard Bernstein Center all at the same time. They acknow Awe are fast approaching the ledge that every student's mind end of the first phase of our work. operates differently and that the As we look ahead to creating a process of learning is, by definition, national network of schools in the ambiguous. near future (we will keep you post It is understandable that educa ed!), we are finding, most happily, tors would like to make concrete that our organizational structure - that which is ambiguous or unclas Artists Center, Education Center, sifiable. Testing exclusively for ana and Research Center - fits rather lytical and mathematical skills, for perfectly with Leonard Bernstein's instance, gives solid evidence of legacy as artist, teacher and schol achievement in those areas. Often ar. Our collaborating schools in dismissed as merely a ranking exer Jerusalem Mayor Ehud O/mert presents Yutaka Sada with the Laureate certificate. Nashville report that the legacy cise, standardized testing is useful gives their work context and a in finding out what students know he First Leonard Bernstein On 12 October, the first Leonard clear focus. At the Center, there is a and don 't know. But it cannot tell TJerusalem International Bernstein Laureate was symbiotic, dynamic relationship you why. It overlooks the very life Conducting Competition began announced - Mr. Yutaka Sada between the three divisions. of a student's mind. Over time, on a sunny day in Jerusalem, as of Japan, a former student of Mr As every reader of p, f & r most students will perceive that 17 young conductors sat around a Bernstein's, who won the $25,000 knows, classifying my father's their mind's life means little to table at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, prize, the medallion and the offer legacy is not a simple proposition .