MUSE/IQUE Continues Concert Series, MUSIC = POWER with BERNSTEIN AT HEART: Learning is Living 

MUSE/IQUE continues its yearlong concert series, MUSIC = POWER with BERNSTEIN AT HEART: Learning is Living on Thursday, August 3 at 7:30 pm at The Huntington Library in San Marino and Sunday, August 6 at 7:30 pm at The Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles. The ensemble is joined by soprano Anna Schubert, tenor Ashley Faatoalia and, from the Colburn School, Australian youth violinist James Birch.
 
Leonard Bernstein's legendary "Young People's Concerts" helped define our modern imagination. Four months after the Broadway debut of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein's groundbreaking educational series with the New York Philharmonic was delivered to audiences worldwide via television. Inspired by Artistic and Music Director Rachael Worby's idol, we learn how these famed telecasts became a blueprint for learning and a lesson in the power of knowledge that still resonates today.
 

Program includes West Side Story “Mambo,” Copland's Appalachian Spring (“Simple Gifts”); James Taylor's Fire and Rain (sung by Ashley Faatoalia); Ginestera's Estancia - Malambo movement; John Lennon - In My Life (sung by Anna Schubert); Mozart - Concerto #4 - movement #1 (performed by Colburn violin soloist James Birch); Bach - Prelude in F minor; On the Town, "Times Square"; and West Side Story Concert Suite No. 1 (“Maria,” “One Hand, One Heart,” “Somewhere,” “Balcony Scene” - sung by Ashley and Anna).
 
Broadcast to millions in America and abroad, the immensely popular series, “Young People’s Concerts,” was the winner of multiple Emmy, Peabody and Edison awards. Bernstein presented the unique blend of spoken words and music known as the "Young People's Concerts" throughout his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, and for several years after. His enjoyment, and his audience's, can be seen vividly captured by the video cameras. He is an intensely interactive teacher, getting his audience to sing, springing a quiz full of trick questions, and singing a Beatles song to demonstrate a point.

Jamie Bernstein in “Leonard Bernstein: A Born Teacher” wrote, “So when my father talks in one “Young People's Concert” about the overture to "Marriage of Figaro" as "a roller coaster ride," he's not kidding! Conducting Mozart's music was every bit as thrilling to him as riding the Cyclone at Coney Island - and take it from me: he brought the same heightened level of engagement to both activities.”

That was exactly it: Leonard Bernstein loved music. ALL of it. And he gave a clear signal to his audiences that it was OK to love all music — and not to put a value judgment on one genre over another. He was the unsnobbiest person you could ever hope to meet. He loved people and was curious about everything.  Luckily for all of us, it wasn't enough for Leonard Bernstein to compose music and conduct orchestras. He felt equally compelled to talk about music — to try and explain what made it tick, what made it good, and what made it affect us in all the ways that music does. The other piece of good luck was that Leonard Bernstein and television came along at the same time. They were born for each other.

Bernstein's great gift was his ability to convey his own excitement about music. Watching him explain sonata form or the difference between a tonic and a dominant, you had the sense that he was letting you in on a wonderful secret, rather than drumming facts into you that might prove useful later.  It doesn't matter what the subject is; a teacher's own passion is going to improve the student's ability to absorb and process the information. Excitement is contagious.

To post a comment, you must register and login.