Leonard Bernstein: An American Musical Icon – clip

Orin Grossman / Fairfield University

Leonard Bernstein was just 25 years old when he burst onto the New York and international musical scene with one of the most famous debuts of all time: his substitution for the ailing Bruno Walter as conductor of the New York Philharmonic in November of 1943.  From that moment, his astonishing career in music blossomed as a conductor, a composer of Broadway musicals and films, a composer of “serious” American classical music, a pianist, and an educator.  His flamboyant and occasionally chaotic personal life only added to his extraordinary charisma.