presents
West Side Story
Kenneth Schermerhorn and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was born of Russian immigrant parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 25th, 1918. As a youth, Bernstein had inspired piano technique, and his sight-reading was astounding. He was capable of playing the most difficult scores at sight and would transpose complex passages with ease. These talents, among others, later endeared him to famed conductors Fritz Reiner, Serge Koussevitsky, and Artur Rodzinski. Trained at the prestigious Boston Latin School, and then Harvard and the Curtis Institute, his gift for composing soon became evident. His “serious” works include three symphonies: Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, and Kaddish. He also composed two ballets, Fancy Free and Facsimile, both with choreography by Jerome Robbins, who would later direct and choreograph West Side Story. His opera credits include Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, and A Quiet Place. In 1971, he composed a controversial theatre piece, Mass, to inaugurate the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. His first Broadway hit was On the Town, a musical based on the ballet Fancy Free with a libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, two of Lenny’s oldest and staunchest friends. In 1952, he again collaborated with Betty and Adolph on Wonderful Town. In 1954, he premiered his Serenade for violin, strings and percussion as well as the score for the prize-winning film On the Waterfront.

Much has been written about Lenny’s multifarious talents. He has been lionized for his abilities as concert pianist, conductor, composer, author, and teacher. Some have argued that his diverse musical interests prevented him from reaching his full potential as a serious composer; however, it was his extraordinary versatility that enabled West Side Story to elevate musical theatre to new heights. The ability to combine serious ballet music and classically constructed fugues with memorable popular melodies, jazzy, finger-snapping tunes, heart wrenching love songs, and vaudevillian humor could only have come from one man, the true Renaissance musician of the twentieth century.

Sid Ramin

WEST SIDE STORY
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