leonard bernstein

Leonard Bernstein to Marc Blitzstein, July 20, 1962

excerpt: "Am here Bay of Naples, en route to Monte Carlo & Spain, I think of you, S & V, being Jewish your Arabic [maid?]. I hope all continues to be as joyful as before."

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, August 30, 1979

excerpt: " it was your 61st birthday five days ago congratulate you on that signal event "

Young People's Concerts Scripts: The Sound of a Hall [typescript with ...

From: Young People's Concerts Television Scripts Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Shirley Bernstein, October 3, 1985

excerpt: "1915 years later--and it's yours!" From: Correspondence Series

Bernstein ca. 1921 with parents, Samuel and Jennie. Photographer unide...

From: Photographs Series Public domain photograph related to music, performing arts, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Bernstein ca. 1922. Photographer unidentified. (Music Division)

From: Photographs Series Public domain photograph related to music, performing arts, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Bernstein at the ranch of Frieda Lawrence, widow of the writer D.H. La...

From: Photographs Series Public domain photograph - New Mexico, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Bernstein at the ranch of Frieda Lawrence, widow of the writer D.H. La...

From: Photographs Series Public domain photograph - New Mexico, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, December 29, 1933

excerpt: "I have created quite a stir with the piano, and am even giving musicales." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, December 12, 1933

excerpt: "Added to your pride in me: I am almost positive that I am to do my concerto with Sevitzky's Young musicians' orchestra. From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, July 21, 1934

excerpt: "Would you please advise me by immediate mail whether to play modern, alternate or classical program." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, July 2, 1934

excerpt: "I am having a wonderful time here in Atlantic City." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, August 1937

excerpt: "I'm having a splendid time here at camp..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, October 11, 1937

excerpt: "I cannot tell you often enough how great a debt I owe to you for the fine foundation and musical (and extra-musical) inspiration you gave me..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1938

excerpt: "Alex North says your much too good for so menial a job as is open at Bennington." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1938

excerpt: "...be sure to learn a lot about counterpoint first. No one can beat Piston at that...I saw M. Blitzstein...so why not write him directly and say you're the pianist I mentioned..." From: Correspondence Series

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, October 18, 1938

excerpt: " thank you so much for your always so kind thoughts to me "

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, March 27, 1938

excerpt: " real object in writing this letter is to tell how interested I am now in this new and exciting art called "swing music"

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, October 1938

excerpt: "I'll try to reach Blitzstein before I call you to get the dope from him. But what makes you think he controls the fee?" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, May 21, 1938

excerpt: "I wish you'd come down to Princeton on Friday the 27th. Walter P__ and I are having a program at 4...and Roy Harris is being performer that night." From: Correspondence Series

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, August 30, 1938

excerpt: "Dear Dopey...Congratulations on your birthday"

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, August 30, 1938

excerpt: "Dear Dopey...Congratulations on your birthday"

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, November 8, 1938

excerpt: " my only happiness is just to believe and to feel myself enslaved in my work is a spiritual slavery I mean "

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, May 4, 1938

excerpt: "I couldn't answer your first letter; you were asking me too much."

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, August 1938

excerpt: "...I met at least one new and talented composer in London, Benjamin Britten...working at top speed on a new cowboy ballet for the Ballet Caravan outfit." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1939

excerpt: "Will you listen in to the broadcasts and tell me what's wrong with them?/Benjamin Britten arrives to-night!" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, October 18, 1939

excerpt: "I'm tickled that they are taking such good care of you at Curtis." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, October 15, 1939

excerpt: "I'm being swallowed up by the Great American Continent." From: Correspondence Series

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, November 6, 1939

excerpt: "I was playing football the other day, and I took a big tackle and I hurt my knee."

Marc Blitzstein to Leonard Bernstein, June 20, 1939

excerpt: "Yaddo is exactly as I left it eight years ago, which is a little frightening, but reassuring too."

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1939

excerpt: "...you arouse a long dead messianic complex in me. Do you mind being saved?...I see the beginning and end of the first movement but not the middle." From: Correspondence Series

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, February 18, 1939

excerpt: "...I am very happy to here that you are working hard sorry to see that you neglect your piano "

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, September 19, 1940

excerpt: "...what have you decided to do about the winter?" From: Correspondence Series

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, March 9, 1940

excerpt: "Use my name us[sic] you like "

Letter from Helen Coates to Leonard Bernstein, November 12, 1940

excerpt: "I'm thrilled to hear you are conducting a Chorus, and even more excited at the prospect of your all-Negro orchestra. I have a great interest in and sympathy for the negro race." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Leonard Bernstein, October 1, 1940

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, July 1, 1940

excerpt: "Copland tells me that Kouss. is expecting one of his students to conduct Randall Thompson's Symphony no.2 the very first week, and that he has mentioned my name as the first possibility." From: Corres... More

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, November 7, 1940

excerpt: "As you perceive, I am here, & indulging in all sorts of exciting performances & rehearsing." From: Correspondence Series

Aaron Copland with Leonard Bernstein, ca. 1940

Public domain image of musical performance, piano music, keyboard instrument, pianist, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Leonard Bernstein, October 31, 1940

excerpt: "If you want my advice, pay a great deal of attention to every remark made by Mr. Reiner. He is, as you know, a master technician and holds the best European traditions of musical art." From: Correspo... More

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1940

excerpt: "...I am writing a Piano Sonata..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1940

excerpt: "I plan to see Koussie before I go and will talk to him about you." From: Correspondence Series

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, January 9, 1940

excerpt: "Please kindly call me this evening "

Letter from Helen Coates to Leonard Bernstein, November 14, 1940

excerpt: "It would be rather fun to go along with you to the recording." From: Correspondence Series

Verna Fine to The Bernstein Family. October 16, 1990

excerpt: "Let me add my small voice of sorrow to the multitude of messages that must be pouring in from around the world I met Lenny in the fall of 1940 when I started dating Irving Irving turned to me and said... More

Betty Comden to Leonard Bernstein, February 29, 1940

excerpt: " recording postponed "

Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Leonard Bernstein, September 5, 1940

excerpt: "Nothing could have made me happier than to know that your work this summer has really given you beauty and strength and a better understanding of the gifts with which nature has endowed you." From: Co... More

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, January 1940

excerpt: "Watch out for Mice & Men in Philadelphia. You're probably the only one alive who will hear the background music I wrote. 40 minutes of it." From: Correspondence Series

Leonard Bernstein to David Diamond, October 11, 1940

The David Diamond Collection

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1940

excerpt: "Marc Blitzstein reports it was `easily the best thing on the program'." From: Correspondence Series

Bernstein conducts Stravinsky's L'histoire du Soldat at an informal Ta...

From: Photographs Series Public domain photograph related to music, performing arts, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, April 1941

excerpt: "You would like the Britten--you old romanticist you. But I agree. It's definitely got something--and the second movement orchestration is phenomenal...I tried to get you a job playing the piano part... More

William Howard Schuman to Leonard Bernstein, July 21, 1941

excerpt: " you seem to have discovered the difference between conceit and egotism. The latter is essential beginning of great success "

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Sam Bernstein, September 22, 1941

excerpt: "Jamie grows more beautiful every day...She is really remarkably advanced for two weeks old..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Olga Koussevitzky, December 5, 1941

excerpt: "Leonard Bernstein announces the opening of his studio for the teaching of piano and musical analysis..." From: Correspondence Series

Mrs. Edward Bok to Serge Koussevitzky, September 25, 1941

excerpt: " see if something can be done "

William Howard Schuman to Leonard Bernstein, October 1941

excerpt: " busy erecting a monument to Dr. Wesselhoeft Next week I'm in Boston starting Tuesday "

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Olga Koussevitzky, October 7, 1941

excerpt: "The doctor who deferred me (in case Dr. K. is serious about writing him)..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, October 20, 1942

excerpt: "...in a rushed moment. Will write very soon" From: Correspondence Series

William Howard Schuman to Leonard Bernstein, 1941

excerpt: "I've suggested you as assistant music critic for the newspaper PM if you hear from Henry Simon their critic..."

Aubrey Williams to Serge Koussevitzky, August 26, 1941

excerpt: "I am calling his merit to the attention of those states where we maintain symphony orchestras"

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, November 25, 1941

excerpt: " glad you are going to play the concerto of Chavez in Boston "

Serge Koussevitzky to Mrs. Edward Bok, September 21, 1941

excerpt: " he is very anxious to be of service to his country, and suggests the U.S.O ."

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, October 25, 1941

excerpt: "Finished the Sonata! Played the world premiere in B.A. Slonimsky was there. Musicians said nice things." From: Correspondence Series

Leonard Bernstein to Mildred Spiegel Zucker, December 5, 1941

The Mildred Spiegel Zucker Collection

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1941

excerpt: "Heinshimer says Koss is doing Quiet City this week...If true, please tell him that there is a terrible mistake in the printed score at No. 7..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, January 10, 1941

excerpt: "Last Saturday I lost one of my best friends -- Alfred Eisner." From: Correspondence Series

Serge Koussevitzky to Horace Johnson, November 9, 1941

excerpt: "May I recommend Leonard Bernstein"

William Howard Schuman to Leonard Bernstein, 1941

excerpt: "I felt that you acted ahead of your present achievements when we met last summer count on me to tell you what I really think."

Letter from Aaron Copland to Andre (?), September 3, 1942

excerpt: "In twenty years I have not met a young musician with more natural ability and real flair. His fort, as you know is conducting. I have heard Koussevitzky repeatedly say the most enthusiastic things o... More

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, November 1, 1945

excerpt: " first New York performance was in 1942 by me "

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1942

excerpt: "We [Camargo Guanieri and I] are playing a Birthday Piece (on Cuban Themes) at Town Hall together on Dec. 9th. It's not written yet, but then..." From: Correspondence Series

Serge Koussevitzky to whom it may concern, 1942

excerpt: "I can recommend Leonard Bernstein for a position as conductor"

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1942

excerpt: "I'm writing a ballet -- very frothy one -- for the Monte Carlo people." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Jennie Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, July 11, 1942

excerpt: "I'm sure you'll really enjoy it [at Tanglewood]" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, April 1, 1942

excerpt: "Considering one day vacation with you starting tomorrow..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, 1942

excerpt: "Hurrah for you!" From: Correspondence Series

"Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, April 11, 1943"

excerpt: "I'm beginning to lose contact with your every thought. I have a sense of you having had a great triumph out of the Bowles opus, followed by a kind of let-down which is natural enough "

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Serge Koussevitzky, August 1943

excerpt: "Thursday night I was deferred for all time from the army...[the doctor] assured me, 'nothing can interfere with your career.'" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, February 17, 1943

excerpt: "A thousand thanks for everything and best of luck" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, September 14, 1943

excerpt: "It's all too wonderful!...I keep wondering what you will think of the score for North Star...I even had my first chance at a bang-up battle sequence....Of course I was jealous when I read Piston and T... More

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Serge Koussevitzky, 1943

excerpt: "Don't you think it might be a wonderful idea to have Jenny Tourel to sing the Soprano Solo in my Symphony?" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, March 21, 1943

excerpt: "Here's more: I'm really getting to like this idea--" From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, March 6, 1943

excerpt: "I did omit to get the Post (which criticized my wit, favorably, but made no mention of the performance)." From: Correspondence Series

"Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, February 13, 1943"

excerpt: "The blow has fallen, they are not letting me go back to NY for the concert I got myself into this jam so I might as well take it like a man I've suggested that you play the Sonata instead of me."

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, February 23, 1943

excerpt: "For the record" [with Town Hall program] From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, September 13, 1943

excerpt: "This publicity business is really getting fantastic. Every N.Y. paper had it on Thurs.,...I've just taken a fine apartment in Carnegie Hall." From: Correspondence Series

Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein, December 27, 1943

excerpt: " heard your recent successes and I feel very happy and proud about it "

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, September 4, 1943

excerpt: "Marvelous news just finishing my last ten thousand notes will be coming home end of this month..." From: Correspondence Series

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, 1943

excerpt: "Enclosing is Dick Tracy which I will send you every Sunday"

Burton Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein, 1943

excerpt: "Enclosing is Dick Tracy which I will send you every Sunday"

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, September 3, 1944

excerpt: "...hold option on apartment until I get back..." From: Correspondence Series

Renée Longy to Leonard Bernstein, January 30, 1944

excerpt: "Watch opening "

Adolph Green and Betty Comden to Leonard Bernstein, February 19, 1944

excerpt: "Your project receiving our careful consideration "

"Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, May 20, 1944"

excerpt: "I think I solved the Our Town problem. It repeats the waltz as you like, and removes entirely the ""ties that bind"" section I'll never forget that face of yours in Reubens."

Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Leonard Bernstein, December 8, 1944

excerpt: "Cannot possibly come to performance Thursday 14th...but would gladly attend opening night Wednesday..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, July 18, 1944

excerpt: "Having wonderful time. We are wind & sunburned & almost there." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Serge Koussevitzky to Leonard Bernstein, March 4, 1944

excerpt: "It has been more than a joy for me to have you conduct your Symphony with my orchestra..." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, August 29, 1944

excerpt: "The concert [with the Los Angeles Symphony in the Hollywood Bowl] went as well as can be expected." From: Correspondence Series

Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, August 18, 1944

excerpt: "I think we should call a halt on the AYO affair, by saying that my dates have been filled. Don't give Schatz the reasons you gave me -- just say I'm busy." From: Correspondence Series