He was given piano lessons as a boy and had his pre-college education at the Garrison and Boston Latin schools. Going on to Harvard University, he worked with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. By the time of his graduation, in 1939, he had made an unofficial conducting debut (his own incidental music to The Birds), and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock. Later, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and composition with Randall Thompson.
In 1949 he became a student of the Boston Symphony’s reigning conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, at Tanglewood, and he was subsequently named his conducting assistant.
Bernstein’s first permanent conducting post, however, was as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, to which he was named in 1943. That was an important year for him both as a composer and as a conductor. Not only did he win the New York Music Critic’ Award for his first symphony, Jeremiah, but he also made his sudden and now famous debut with the Philharmonic, substituting on just a few hours’ notice for the indisposed Bruno Walter at a concert at Carnegie Hall. He won extraordinary praise, and was soon being sought as guest conductor by leading orchestras all over the world.
In the years following he served as music director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra for three seasons, from 1945 to 1947, and was head of the conducting faculty at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1956.
Serge Koussevitzky had died in 1951, and Bernstein took over the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, where he continued to teach in the summer from time to time. Of great personal importance this same year was his marriage to the Chilean actress and pianist, Felicia Montealegre.
In 1957 Bernstein was invited to become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and from 1958 until 1969 conducted more concerts with them than anyone had ever done. Relinquishing the post after his eleven-year tenure, he accepted the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor. Two years later he led his thousandth concert with the Philharmonic, and he continued to be a frequent guest. More than half of his 400-plus recordings were made with this orchestra.
He traveled the world with his baton. He conducted in London and at the International Music Festival in Prague in 1946, and in Tel Aviv in 1947; he shared a transcontinental tour of the United States and Israel with Koussevitzky in 1951, and in 1953 became the first American ever to be invited to conduct a production at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Cherubini’s Medea with Maria Callas). Meanwhile, he was making almost annual tours with the New York Philharmonic, both in his years as music director and afterwards as well, ultimately playing hundreds of concerts in 70 cities throughout 35 countries. For an international tour that commemorated the United States Bicentennial in 1976 he programmed only American music and played it to sold-out houses wherever he went.
His support and promulgation of American composers is a matter of record, particularly in the case of Aaron Copland, whose close friend he had been for decades..."half of his life," Bernstein remarked in an affectionate tribute on the occasion of Copland’s birthday celebration in 1975. As a young pianist he played Copland so much that he called the Piano Variations his trademark. As conductor he programmed and recorded (several of them twice) nearly all the Copland orchestral works. He devoted several of his television Young People’s Concerts to Copland and commissioned an important work, Connotations, for the opening of Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center in 1962. At another birthday party, this one in 1979, Bernstein’s greeting happily and publicly acknowledged Copland as "my first friend in New York, my master, my idol, my sage, my shrink, my guide, my counselor, my elder brother, my beloved friend."
Bernstein composed his own first large-scale work, the Jeremiah Symphony, in 1944, inspired by his Jewish heritage. It was performed in Pittsburgh for the first time, the composer conducting. His second symphony, based on a poem by W. H. Auden and called The Age of Anxiety, was first performed by Koussevitzky, with Bernstein as piano soloist, in 1949. The Boston Symphony and the Koussevitzky Foundation together commissioned his Symphony No. 3, subtitled ‘Kaddish.’ It was composed in 1963 and dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy.
Other major compositions by Bernstein include Serenade for violin, strings, and percussion (1954); Five Anniversaries for piano solo (1964); Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers, commissioned for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and first produced there in 1971; Chichester Psalms for chorus, boy sopranos, and orchestra (1974); a "political overture," Slava!, written in 1977 to honor Mstislav Rostropovich; Songfest, a cycle of songs for singers and orchestra (1977); Divertimento for Orchestra (1980); Missa Brevis (1988) for singers and percussion; Arias and Barcarolles for piano duet (or alternatively, chamber orchestra or string orchestra) and two singers; and Concerto for Orchestra (subtitled Jubilee Games), both works completed and first performed in 1989.
Bernstein’s one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, from 1951, was followed in 1983 by A Quiet Place, a sequel meant to be performed with it. He collaborated with choreographer Jerome Robbins in three major ballets: Fancy Free (1944) and Facsimile (1946) for American Ballet Theater; and Dybbuk for New York City Ballet. He composed the film score for the Academy Award-winning On the Waterfront (1954) and the scores for two theater works on Broadway, Peter Pan (1950) and The Lark (1955).
Trained in the classical tradition but always thoroughly attuned to and communicative of the popular idiom as well, Bernstein made substantial contributions to the Broadway musical stage, beginning with On the Town in 1944 and following with Wonderful Town in 1953, Candide in 1956 (also produced by numerous opera companies), and the immensely popular West Side Story (1957), later made into an Academy Award-winning film. His Bicentennial work, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, was produced in Washington and on Broadway in 1976.
Bernstein’s eminence as a writer is based on The Joy of Music (1959), The Infinite Variety of Music (1966), Findings (1982), and their translations into nearly a score of other languages. Six lectures given at Harvard University in 1972-73 when he was Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry were later collected into a book entitled The Unanswered Question.
Bernstein was the recipient of scores of honors besides those mentioned. The National Fellowship Award in 1985 applauded his life-long support of humanitarian causes, and he received the Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was elected in 1981, the MacDowell Colony’s Gold Medal, medals from the Beethoven Society and the Mahler Gesellschaft, New York City’s highest honors in the field of the arts, the Handel Medallion, a Tony Award (1969) for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater, and literally dozens of honorary degrees and awards from colleges and universities including his alma mater, Harvard (Man of the Year in 1966). He was given ceremonial keys to the cities of Oslo, Vienna, Beersheva and Bernstein, Austria among others, and high honors from many nations: Italy, Israel, Austria, Mexico, Denmark, Germany (the Great Merit Cross), England, and France (where, successively, he was created Chevalier, Officer, and Commandeur of the Legion d’Honneur), as well as UNESCO’s Silver Wand. Far from being a prophet without honor in his own country, he received Kennedy Center honors in 1980.
Festivals of Bernstein’s music have been produced throughout the world, most recently at the Beethoven/Bernstein Festival in Bonn, Germany; and in London, produced jointly by the Barbican Centre and the London Symphony (of which he was honorary President since 1987). Another was produced by the Israel Philharmonic in commemoration of his debut concerts with the orchestra 30 years before. (The Israel Philharmonic also tendered him the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1988).
In June 1990, Bernstein was among the first recipients of the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created in 1988 by the Japan Art Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to found the Bernstein Education Through the Arts Fund, Inc. before his death on October 14, 1990.
Bernstein was the father of three children: Jamie, Alexander, and Nina, and the grandfather of two: Francesca and Evan.
Leonard Bernstein is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Leonard Bernstein's offical website is: http://www.leonardbernstein.com
This biography appears on Last.fm by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.
Somewhere
Leonard Bernstein Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere
There's a time for us
Someday a time for us
Time to learn, time to care
Someday
Somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere
There's a place for us
A time and place for us
Hold my hand and we're half way there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow
Someday
Somewhere
The lyrics of Leonard Bernstein's song Somewhere, express the longing for a better life. The song refers to a place and time where the singers wish to be together, surrounded by peace, quiet, and open air, where they can learn and care for each other. They express hope that they will find a new way of living, and that they will find a way of forgiving. The refrain "Hold my hand, and we're halfway there, hold my hand and I'll take you there" conveys the idea of the power of human connection to lead people to a better place.
The song is from the musical West Side Story, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and music by Leonard Bernstein. It opened on Broadway in 1957, and has since become a classic of American musical theater. The song Somewhere is often considered the show's signature tune. In the musical, the song is sung by the character of Tony to Maria, expressing their longing to escape the violence and prejudice of their rival gangs and be together in a peaceful place.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a place for us
There is a place where we belong
Somewhere a place for us
We may not know exactly where, but there is a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wherever it may be, it will be a serene and comfortable environment where we can feel free and relaxed
Wait for us
Even if we don't know where it is yet, it's out there waiting for us to find it
There's a time for us
There is also a specific time in our lives where we will find our place
Someday a time for us
Although it may not be right now, there will come a day when the timing is right
Time together with time to spare
When we find our place, we will have ample time to spend together and pursue the things we love
Time to learn, time to care
We will also have the time and resources to grow, both intellectually and emotionally
We'll find a new way of living
When we find our place, we'll be able to live life in a new and fulfilling way
We'll find a way of forgiving
In this new life, we will also find it easier to forgive ourselves and others
Somewhere
We may not know where it is yet, but it's out there
There's a place for us
Again, there is a place where we belong
A time and place for us
Both the place and the timing are important in our journey
Hold my hand and we're half way there
With someone by our side, we have a better chance of finding our place
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
In fact, we have the power to support and guide others as well
Somehow
In some way or another, we will make our way to our place
Someday
At some point in the future, we'll find the place where we truly belong
Somewhere
Although we may not know where it is yet, it is out there somewhere
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Claudielle Lee
There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us, Somewhere...
There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day! Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere.
There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're halfway there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there,
Somehow, Some day,
Somewhere!
Leslie Ann Lemieux
My high school sweetheart sang this song to me when his family broke us up. We never wanted it. Five years ago he found me on the Internet. We were married after a 38 year separation. Five years later, only months ago, he was killed by a drunk driver. This version of the song so touches my heart and fits for such a sad ending of our lives together. I only heard this for the first time on the radio today. For the length of the song, I felt so connected with him. This version of the song now is in my favorites list.
Art Resnick
Your sad story touched my heart.
Leslie Ann Lemieux
I am sorry to hear that you understand that pain. Thank you for your kind remark.
litoboy5
Maybe he's waiting for you... SOMEWHERE !!!
Brian Reilly
My God. This is what it's all about.
Nick Niehaus
i broke to tears
Kathleen Belcher
I’m 14 and this song has touched me sense the moment I heard it. I’m going to try for our schools talent show in the spring singing my first solo song in front of my school. Thank you to Bernstein who created this wonderful song that has inspired me to get past my greatest fears!
K. E. Robinson
Good luck
Tiziano Vian
Please let me know how it has gone
alan reeder
This was one of my mothers favorite songs ,she passed when i was 18 and every time i hear it ,it brings tears even 40 years later ❤