Polemic new biopic Maestro, which takes a deep dive into the life of the legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, will show in selected cinemas around the UK on Friday before it drops on Netflix.
Bradley Cooper – who plays the musician – has come in for criticism for wearing a prosthetic nose in the biopic, with critics claiming it was anti-Semitic.
However, Leonard Bernstein’s family defended Bradley’s choice to wear the prosthesis, saying ‘It happens to be true that he had a nice big nose’ in a statement.
So, who exactly is Leonard Bernstein? Read on below for everything you need to know about the legendary composer.
Bernstein contributed substantially to the Broadway musical stage, where he completed arguably his most famous piece of work to compose the music for the blockbuster hit West Side Story, which would go on to be adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. Pictured: Bernstein with his wife Felicia Montealegre
Who was Leonard Bernstein?
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts and began taking interest in music after having piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools.
After studying at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was appointed to his first permanent conducting post in 1943, as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic orchestra.
Inspired by his Jewish heritage, Bernstein completed his first large-scale work, Symphony No. 1: ‘Jeremiah’ the same year.
First performed to audiences in 1944 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1944, it would go on to win the New York Music Critics’ Award.
Following the assassination of the then-US President John F. Kennedy, the composer dedicated his Symphony No.3: ‘Kaddish’ to the politician.
Bernstein contributed substantially to the Broadway musical stage, where he completed arguably his most famous piece of work to compose the music for the blockbuster hit West Side Story, which would go on to be adapted into an Academy Award-winning film.
Away from music, world peace was a particular concern of Bernstein and he was a supporter of Amnesty International from its inception. In 1987, he established the Felicia Montealegre Fund in memory of his wife who died in 1978.
A further example of Bernstein’s commitment to world peace came in December 1989, when he conducted the historic ‘Berlin Celebration Concerts’ on both sides of the Berlin Wall, as it was being dismantled.
Ahead of the upcoming release of Maestro, Bradley Cooper has revealed that he will be spending Thanksgiving holiday with Leonard Bernstein’s adult children Nina, Alexander, and Jamie at the family’s Connecticut estate.
Ahead of the upcoming release of Maestro, Bradley Cooper has revealed that he will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Leonard Bernstein’s adult children. Pictured: an image released by Netflix showing Cooper as the composer in Maestro
The actor, 48, who plays the composer in biopic Maestro said on Tuesday’s The Late Show.: ‘We are going to go to [New] Jersey and then we’re going to go to Fairfield, CT to spend it with the Bernsteins – the children.’
‘And we shot [Maestro] in that house.’
Jamie, Alexander, and Nina (played by Maya Hawke, Sam Nivola, and Alexa Swinton) were 38, 35, and 28 years old when Leonard passed away, age 72, in 1990 from a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma.
But the Bernstein children were only 25, 23, and 15 when their beloved mother Felicia succumbed to her lung cancer battle, at age 56, in 1978.
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