Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein (1918 to 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author and humanitarian, born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was the first American-born conductor to win international acclaim and the first to lead a major American symphony orchestra, serving as music director of the New York Philharmonic. As a composer he worked across symphonic, ballet, film, theatre, choral, opera and chamber music, and his works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, the score for On the Waterfront, the Chichester Psalms, Candide and Mass. He played a major part in the modern revival of Gustav Mahler's music and reached a mass audience through televised Young People's Concerts. He studied at Harvard and the Curtis Institute of Music, and he campaigned for civil rights, nuclear disarmament and HIV and AIDS research. He died in New York in 1990.