Leonard Bernstein

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would visit their friends,
Leonard would sneak over to the piano and experiment. When he was eleven, his
aunt sent her piano to his house for his family to keep for storage. �I made
love to it right away� he recalled (Musicians p. 65). He could escape from all
his frustrations and sadness by playing the piano. His parents didn't like the
fact that he was always at the piano, they wanted him to concentrate on his
school work. They thought of piano playing as a waste of time because it stood
in the way of Leonard's learning his father's business, which they planned for
him to eventually take over.
At the age of ten, Leonard found a piano teacher who would give
him lessons for a dollar a lesson. But that teacher soon moved away and Leonard
found himself paying another piano teacher three dollars a lesson out of his
allowance. After more than a year of piano lessons that just weren't teaching
him much, Leonard found a new, and this time excellent piano teacher named ...

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director offered him a
permanent job with the ships staff.
Music really changed Leonard's shy personality for the better,
along with his poor health.
From Boston Latin School Bernstein went on to Harvard College.
He wrote for and performed in college productions, played the piano for the glee
club and provided the background music for silent motion pictures.
In 1939 Bernstein graduated from Harvard with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts and a cum laude in music. By this time Dimitri Mitropoulos,
the director, had become interested in him. He encouraged Bernstein to join him
at the Boston Symphony's rehearsals. He also encouraged him to consider
becoming a conductor. Bernstein ...

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