Biography

Leonard Bernstein (1918–90) was one of the first American conductors to win wide international acclaim. He became music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958, and from then until 1969, he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. He composed the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1952; its sequel, the opera A Quiet Place, received its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera in 1983, presented as a double-bill with Trouble in Tahiti. For the Broadway stage, Bernstein collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green in creating On the Town (1944) and Wonderful Town (1953). In collaboration with Richard Wilbur, Lillian Hellman, and others he wrote Candide (1956). Other versions of Candide were written in association with Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim, et al. In 1957 he again collaborated with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents on the landmark musical West Side Story, also made into an Academy Award–winning film. In 1976, Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner wrote 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Bernstein’s multiple honors included the 1990 Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created by the Japan Arts Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc., before his death on October 14, 1990.