Today's Birthdays: August 25

August 25

Leonard Bernstein

1918–1990, American composer, conductor, and pianist

Born in Lawrence, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1939, and Curtis Institute of Music, 1941. A highly versatile musician, he was the composer of symphonic works (the Jeremiah Symphony, 1944; Age of Anxiety, 1949; Kaddish Symphony, 1963), song cycles, chamber music, ballets (Fancy Free, 1944), musicals (On the Town, 1944; Wonderful Town, 1953; Candide, 1956; West Side Story, 1957), opera (Trouble in Tahiti, 1952), and choral music (Chichester Psalms, 1965). His Mass (1971), a “theater piece for dancers, singers, and players,” was performed at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. From 1951 to 1956 he taught at Brandeis Univ. He was a soloist and conductor with many orchestras in the United States and abroad. He first conducted the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1943, and from 1958 to 1970 was its musical director. Upon his retirement he was named laureate conductor and frequently appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic.

Bibliography:

See his The Joy of Music (1959) and The Infinite Variety of Music (1966); biographies by J. Briggs (1961), J. Gruen (1968), H. Burton (1994), and M. Secrest (1994).

Who2. Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Also Born on August 25

Who Shares Your Birthday?

Select month and date:

The Day You Were Born

What happened the day you were born?
Select month and date:

The Year You Were Born

What happened the year you were born?
Enter the year: