PRELUDE, FUGUE I News for Friends of Leonard Bernstein RI FF S I Spring/Summer 2006 Leonard Bernstein, Boston to Broadway at Harvard he career and legacy of Bernstein will be the focus of a conference and performance show­ case to be held this autumn at Bernstein's alm a mater: Leonard Bernstein, Boston to Broadway: Concerts and Symposia at Harvard University. Co-sponsored by the Office for the Arts at Harvard and Harvard's Department of Music, this three-day event- October 12-14, 2006-will explore Bernstein's work as a composer and his ties to various musical and educational communities in greater Boston. It will also exam­ ine lesser-known facets of his life through panel discussions, master classes, exhibitions, performances and film screenings. The festival's panel discussions will include eminent scholars and critics, Bernstein family mem­ bers, childhood friends, former colleagues, and performers with a connection to his music. Confirmed participants include theater director Harold Prince, producer of Bernstein's classic 1957 musical West Side Story; actor/dancer Chita Rivera, "Anita" in the original Broadway cast of West Side Story; lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof); actress/singer Marni Nixon, Bernstein at his Harvard Graduation, 1939. (continued on page 2) Harvard Seminar Explores Bernstein and the Clarinet: Selected Performances Inside ... Bernstein's Boston Ties Stanley Remembers Lenny Looking Ahead Concerto for Orchestra In the News Leonard Bernstein, Boston to Broadway at Harvard, continued To Our the singing voice of "Maria" in the 1961 film version of West Side Story; music arranger/ Readers orchestrator Sid Ramin (West Side Story, the 1953 Wonderful Town); Bernstein biographer Humphrey Burton; dance critic he double meaning of the word and scholar Deborah Jowitt; "conductor" is apt; the energy choreographer Donald Saddler, of a musical performance travels, who served on the original cre­ like an electrical circuit, through ative team of Wonderful Town; the conductor - from the musicians choreographer/director Kathleen to the audience and back around. Marshall and music director/ Similarly, the energy that Leonard conductor Rob Fisher who, Bernstein radiated into the world respectively, staged the dance around him was a rerouting of all sequences and directed music for the energy that he absorbed. the recent hit Broadway revival Today, we can observe these of Wonderful Town; and circuitries of art and influence in Bernstein's family: daughters the people and places whose paths Jamie Bernstein and Nina crossed Leonard Bernstein's in his Bernstein Simmons, son "By substantively involving lifetime. Harvard University's ambi­ Alexander Bernstein, and brother students from his alma mater­ tious year-long focus, culminating in Burton Bernstein. especially as performers in the a festival next October, will bring Framing the discussions will concerts-we hope to honor together many of the elements com­ be two concerts under the artistic Bernstein's deep commitment to prising Bernstein's early years in the direction of Judith Clurman, educating young people," said Boston area, creating a fascinating Director of Choral Activities at Jack Megan, director of the evocation of geography, music and The Juilliard School in New Office for the Arts. family. York. On October 12, Boston's In addition the Harvard Film We're happy to share a recent Bernstein will feature the com­ Archive will present screenings of interview with clarinetist Stanley poser's earliest work, including rarely seen Bernstein works pro­ Drucker. Stanley was a musical his Piano Trio (1937) and Sonata duced for television, including colleague of Bernstein's since the for Clarinet and Piano (1942). Trouble in Tahiti, aired on NBC 1940's, and is a beloved member There will also be performances in 1952, and Wonderful Town, of our extended family. of works by Bernstein's mentors, shown on CBS in 1958. Two other people with long from his childhood through his Leonard Bernstein, Boston and close relationships to Bernstein, Harvard years, including to Broadway emanates from both as colleagues and friends, are Solomon Braslavsky, organist and two major Bernstein research George Steel and John Mauceri. choir director at Bernstein's child­ projects at Harvard: a spring Their significance to the life and hood synagogue, Congregation 2006 seminar led by Carol J. legacy of Bernstein is now being Mishkan Tefila; Aaron Copland, Oja, William Powell Mason officially acknowledged in their whose music was examined in Professor of Music, and Kay new roles as Music Consultants. Bernstein's senior thesis at Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon And Humphrey Burton, who Harvard; and Marc Blitzstein, Watts Professor of Music; and turned 75 this quarter, continues, whose The Cradle Will Rock an Oja book project. Students through the concert videos he was produced by Bernstein from the seminar will curate an directed as well as with his biogra­ while an undergraduate. exhibition in Harvard's Edna phy of Bernstein, to share with the The concluding concert Kuhn Loeb Music Library during world his unique working and play­ on October 14, Celebrating the festival. • ing relationship with the Maestro. Bernstein, will feature soprano For more information, email It's encouraging as well to see the Nicole Cabell, who was named the Office for the Arts at Harvard compositions of Bernstein inspiring Cardiff Singer of the World at [email protected] (subject fresh academic research, as exempli­ 2005, performing with Harvard line: "Bernstein Festival"), visit fied by Todd Gabriel's incisive students in a program featuring www.fas.harvard.edu/-ofa/, or analysis of Concerto for Orchestra. Bernstein's compositions for call 617.495.8676. In short: no short circuit in sight the theater. for the cycle of energy that contin­ ues to flow around and through the life of Leonard Bernstein. 0 J.B.• Harvard Seminar Explores Bernstein' Boston Ti iming to enrich the under­ fanned out across the commu­ of Boston in Sharon, where the standing of Leonard nity. One rewarding focus was Bernsteins had a summer home; Bernstein's formative cultural Congregation Mishkan Tefila, 86 Park Avenue in Newton where experiences, Professors Carol J. the Bernstein family synagogue. the family lived during the 1930s, Oja and Kay Kaufman Shelemay It is now situated in Newton, the old Mishkan Tefila building conducted a seminar at Harvard where it relocated from Roxbury in Roxbury (a noble structure, University this semester, titled in the 1950s. As one of the old­ rising over Franklin Park); and "Before West Side Story: Leonard est Jewish congregations in the 295 Huntington Avenue, right Bernstein's Boston." Both under­ Boston area, Mishkan Tefila has down the street from Symphony graduate and graduate students a fascinating history, especially in Hall, where Bernstein had a engaged in extensive interviewing music. Its longtime organist and studio in 1941. Students pooled and archival research to explore choir director, the Viennese immi­ research materials on a class the interlinking communities and grant Solomon Braslavsky, had website, and will archive all tapes institutions that shaped Bernstein's a profound impact on the young and transcripts in the Harvard childhood and early career. Bernstein, and students gather Music Library. During class sessions, stu­ information about Braslavsky The seminar has been timed to dents conducted interviews with from the temple archive. dovetail with Harvard's extensive members of Bernstein's family: Bernstein's educational institu­ Bernstein festival this October. daughters Jamie and Nina and tions formed another cluster of Students will help to curate an brother Burton. Other visitors to student topics, including William exhibit, "Boston's Bernstein," to the seminar included Sid Ramin Lloyd Garrison Elementary be mounted in the Music Library. (who grew up in Roxbury with School in Roxbury, which was In addition, a festival symposium Bernstein and went on to become closed in the 1970s but is docu­ will present selected work from one of the orchestrators of West mented in public records; Boston the seminar. Side Story); Harold Shapero Latin School, where a number For more information: (a friend from Harvard days); of Bernstein's classmates have http://www.fas.harvard.edu/-ofa/ Jonathan Sarna (Brandeis pro­ stepped forward to be inter­ bernstein fessor and specialist in Jewish viewed; and Harvard itself, where • Boston); and Jonathan Sheffer interviews with Bernstein's class­ (who reconstructed Bernstein's mates were fused with research in incidental music to The Birds, the University Archives. composed while Bernstein was a In March, the class took a bus Harvard student). tour to Bernstein sites around the Outside of class, the students Boston area, including Temple divided into research teams and Adath Sharon, located south Leonard Bernstein Day he residents of Sharon, afternoon, and will feature a Massachusetts will celebrate jazz trio playing arrangements of Leonard Bernstein Day on June familiar Bernstein music. 24, with musical and cultural During the celebration an events including the dedica­ exhibition depicting the life and tion of a portrait that will be career of Bernstein will be on dis­ installed in the Sharon Public play at the library. There will also Library. Bernstein's brother be screenings of West Side Story C Burton Bernstein will be the and On the Waterfront as well ~ C: guest of honor at the unveil­ as the television documentary Ill II<> ing. Local professional musi­ Reaching for the Note. cians and students will present The Bernstein family had performances featuring the a strong link to Sharon, where Piano Anniversaries, Trouble in Bernstein spent his teenage sum­ Tahiti, Hali!, music from West mers directing, accompanying and For more information please Side Story and other selections. acting in performances of Gilbert contact Walter or Davida Newman The Historical Society's annual and Sullivan as well as Carmen, at [email protected]. • Strawberry Festival is the same no less! 0 Concerto for Orchestra By Todd Gabriel eonard Bernstein's Concerto Lfor Orchestra is a very personal work, written over a period of three years (1986-89) toward the end of his life.