Time Capsule: Leonard Bernstein at Juilliard

From the Archives

Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro was nominated for seven Oscars this year, including best picture. While the film took home no wins, it acquainted a new generation with the life and work of a renowned conductor and music teacher. Let’s take a look back at a few highlights of Bernstein’s long relationship with Juilliard as a conductor, composer, educator, and donor.

In 1947, the Juilliard Musical Foundation commissioned Bernstein’s Brass Music (a signed holograph can be viewed in the Juilliard Library). Another highlight took place in 1959, when Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard Chorus, and Metropolitan Opera stars baritone Leonard Warren and mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens (Juilliard Graduate School ’36, voice) in excerpts from Pagliacci and Carmen at the groundbreaking ceremony for Lincoln Center. Three years later, when Philharmonic (now Geffen) Hall was inaugurated, Bernstein conducted the Phil, the Juilliard Chorus, and Schola Cantorum in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. And in 1970, he conducted the Phil with soloists from the Juilliard Opera Center in a concert version of Beethoven’s Fidelio.

Have a memory of any of these events, and/or can you identify anyone in this March 1979 photo? Let us know at [email protected].