The children of the “maestro” answer our questions about Leonard Bernstein’s legacy

PBS - American Masters
March 5, 2024

What would it be like to see your family life portrayed in a movie?

For siblings Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein, that question has been answered. As the children of composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre, their parents’ lives are the subject of Academy Award-nominated film “Maestro.” Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, the movie is a portrait of the complicated relationship between the couple from the early days of their courtship through marital challenges and final moments – exploring intimate and controversial aspects of Bernstein’s private life.

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein and the Psychology of Music

Harvard Medicine: The Magazine of Harvard Medical School
March 1, 2024

Prior to the premiere of “Maestro,” HMS alumni discussed the influence of music on emotion with Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein’s daughter

What effect does music have on our inner world? And how does a composer’s psychology manifest in their work? Jamie Bernstein, AB ’74, Samuel Wong, MD ’88, and Patrick Whelan, HMS part-time lecturer on pediatrics, explored these questions on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 Norton Lectures in Poetry.

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Alta Tseng
A Trip down Beatlemania memory lane

The Village Sun
February 27, 2024

Like opening a rocking time capsule from the 1960s, the sights, sounds and excitement of Beatlemania came to life once again for one special night at City Winery, thanks to The Village Trip festival.

Titled “It Was 60 Years Ago Today: A Beatles Conversation With Cousin Brucie and Jamie Bernstein,” the Feb. 5 event at Pier 57 brought together Beatles fans to hear legendary radio DJ Bruce Morrow and Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of composer Leonard Bernstein, share their memories of and reflections on those heady days. Joining them on the bill was Blac Rabbit, a Brooklyn rock duo who uncannily channel the Fab Four’s sound.

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Alta Tseng
Embrace Everything: Mahler and the Maestro

New York Philharmonic
January 30, 2024

Leonard Bernstein had an affinity for the music of Gustav Mahler, as seen in the climax of the Oscar-nominated 2023 Netflix film “Maestro.” In this special episode of the podcast Embrace Everything, we explore what the two musicians had in common, and learn how Bernstein brought Mahler back into the spotlight in the 1960s. Guests include Jamie Bernstein (Leonard Bernstein's daughter) and Gabe Smith (New York Philharmonic Director of Archives and Exhibitions). Special thanks to the New York Philharmonic for adding archival images to accompany the audio. Hosted by Aaron Cohen.

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Alta Tseng
A Reading List for the 2024 Oscar Best Picture Nominees

Town & Country
January 27, 2024

If you're a read-the-book-before-you-see-the-movie type of person, add these books to your reading list ASAP.

Famous Father Girl: The Intimate Memoir of Leonard Bernstein and His Family That Helped Inspire the New Movie Maestro

This memoir of Leonard Bernstein, written by his daughter Jamie, partly inspired Bradley Cooper's Maestro. "There was simply no moment when Leonard Bernstein wasn't being a teacher," she writes. "It was words, above all, that he shared with us in all their glorious incarnations."

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Alta Tseng
What’s it like to watch ‘Maestro’ as Leonard Bernstein’s daughter? ‘Surreal.’

The Harvard Gazette
January 24, 2024

Alum recalls dad’s love of Harvard, learning as biopic draws Oscar noms

Before Leonard Bernstein ’39 became the legendary composer and conductor portrayed by Bradley Cooper in the Oscar-nominated biopic “Maestro,” he studied and played music as an undergraduate at Harvard.

“Our father gave education the highest value in life, and he was very proud to be a Harvard alumnus,” said daughter Jamie Bernstein ’74.

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Alta Tseng
10 Books to Read Before the 2024 Oscars

Early Bird Books
January 17, 2024

Many of 2023's best movies were based on books.

A new year is upon us, which means we’re only a few months away from the Oscars. 2023 was a fascinating year for film, particularly the kinds that the Academy likes to reward: biopics, historical dramas, musicals, costume dramas, and stories that make you gasp with wonder at how the hell they ever pulled that off. 

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Alta Tseng
The Best Books to Read After Watching Maestro

Town & Country
January 6, 2024

Curious to learn more about Leonard Bernstein? Add these books to your TBR list.

A brand-new biographical film of Leonard Bernsteinn, Maestro, is now streaming on Netflix, but Bradley Cooper's film only offers a snippet of the life of the famed composer and conductor.

These 10 books about Leonard Bernstein—including Jamie's memoir, Famous Father Girl, which partly inspired Cooper in making Maestro—are key in understanding the man, "the human being," as Jamie writes, behind the fame. Here, what to read after Maestro:

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Alta Tseng
The Bernstein Children on ‘Maestro’

The Hollywood Reporter
December 24, 2023

Siblings Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein on conducting the Venice Film Festival audience, re-living their mother's death on screen, and why Bradley Cooper was the perfect embodiment of their conducting legend father: "He and our dad are so much alike."

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Alta Tseng
Life With Father

Town & Country
By Jamie Bernstein
December 21, 2023

Leonard Bernstein's daughter, Jamie, reflects on their relationship, from the August 2008 issue of Town & Country.

When we were little and shared a room, my brother, Alexander, and I used to drift off to sleep at right angles to each other, listening to the steady waves of laughter, piano playing and singing emanating from our parents and all their witty, noisy friends downstairs. This is what grown-ups did: they drank and smoked and interrupted one another and played raucous word games and sang at the top of their lungs and laughed until they choked. We couldn’t wait to be grown-ups.

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Alta Tseng
How Bradley Cooper Wove My Parents’ Truth into the Fabric of Maestro

TIME
By Jamie Bernstein
December 20, 2023

Five years ago, my dad would have turned 100. The Leonard Bernstein Centennial was a pretty big deal—but I didn’t really grasp the scope of my father’s impact until I started traveling around the country giving talks about my memoir, Famous Father Girl, which came out that same year. Everywhere I went, I met scores of older people who had been there: at Carnegie Hall, at Tanglewood, at the Kennedy Center, and beyond. They’d bought the records; they knew his Broadway shows. The Lenny fan base lives!

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Alta Tseng
Famous Daughter — Whose Book Inspired the Awards-Season Darling 'Maestro' — Toasts Houston Music Org

Houston City Book
December 13, 2023

A SPECIAL GUEST attended Houston-based chamber orchestra ROCO’s annual holiday fundraiser. Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of composer Leonard Bernstein, attended the festive evening, which coincided with the release of the talked-about movie Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard. (Cooper just received a Golden Globe nom for the role.)

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Alta Tseng
Jamie Bernstein on Seeing Her Parents Love Story Come to Life in 'Maestro'

WNYC - All Of It
December 7, 2023

The new film "Maestro" is directed by Bradley Cooper, who stars as famed composer and New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein, alongside Carrie Mulligan as his wife Felicia. Their oldest daughter, Jamie Bernstein, host of the WQXR podcast, The NY Phil Story: Made in New York,, joins us to discuss watching her parent's love story come to life. "Maestro" is in select theaters now and will be on Netflix December 20.

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Alta Tseng
The Real History Behind Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre’s Marriage in ‘Maestro’

Smithsonian Magazine
November 22, 2023

The Bradley Cooper-led film is a dramatization of the storied composer and conductor’s complex love life

On her 25th birthday in February 1947, Felicia Montealegre sent a giddy letter to her new fiancé.

“Lenny, my darling, my darling!” she wrote. “I am a quarter of a century old, a very frightening fact!” Recent developments, she went on, included the arrival of a black cocker spaniel puppy (“She’s mine, my very own!”) and an impending driver’s license exam (“I drive alone all over the place, up hill and down dale, heavy traffic and all—and I’m great! So there!!”).

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein’s daughters on the biopic Maestro: ‘Take it from us, it is uncanny’

Financial Times
November 15, 2023

What do the following have in common — Judy Garland, Margaret Thatcher, Freddie Mercury and Stephen Hawking? Answer: they are just some of the real-life figures played by actors who have gone on to win Oscars. This is a well-trodden path to the red carpet of the Academy Awards.

One essential element is a subject with a high level of charisma, and nobody offered more of that than American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.

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Alta Tseng