Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds," and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock." Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson.
In 1940, he studied at the ... read more
Lillian was born in New Orleans, grew up in New Orleans and New York City and attended New York University and Columbia. Her career as a playwright began in 1934 with The Children's Hour, the first of several plays that would bring her international attention and praise, among them The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, Another Part of the Forest, The Autumn Garden and Toys in the Attic. Hellman was twice the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the best play of the year (for Watch on the Rhine and Toys in the Attic). She ... read more
