IN THE NEWS

Lynda Lopez - WCBS Newsradio 880
March 5, 2020

Inspired by the recent filming of Stephen Spielberg’s “West Side Story” in Paterson, the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts will present a “Wide Side Story in Paterson” Gala, March 6 at the Westmount Country Club in Woodland Park (formerly known as West Paterson). The event will feature performances by students from the Wharton’s Paterson Music Project, New Jersey Youth Symphony and the Performing Arts School.

The institute will also present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jamie Bernstein, whose father, Leonard Bernstein, composed the “West Side Story” score. Attendees will receive a copy of Bernstein’s 2018 memoir, “Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein.”

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Ezvid Wiki Editorial
March 3, 2020

Taking the #4 spot is Jamie Bernstein, an author, narrator, and filmmaker. Her memoir, Famous Father Girl, details growing up with her father, composer Leonard Bernstein, whose works include the musicals On the Town and West Side Story. He also served as chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and counted friendships with choreographer Jerome Robbins, John Lennon, and Lauren Bacall.

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Conway Lynch - Reading EagleMarch 1, 2020

Jamie Bernstein can remember the exact moment she realized how famous her father was.

“It happened when my brother, sister and me were watching 'The Flintstones,' and Betty and Wilma were going to the Hollyrock Bowl to hear Leonard Bernstone conduct.”

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Ryan McFabin - City Lights WABE 90.1 FM

February 18, 2020

To know Bernstein from his work was to see a brilliant artist with the phenomenal ability to communicate through words and music. To know him personally was to see a complex and often conflicted man. No one has a better perspective than the conductor’s daughter Jamie Bernstein. Her memoir, “Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein,” explores the lasting legacy of Bernstein.

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Broadway World
February 12, 2020

The gala is inspired by Steven Spielberg's remake of the classic movie which was partially filmed last summer in Paterson, the home of the Wharton Institute's Paterson Music Project. The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jamie Bernstein, whose father, Leonard Bernstein, composed "West Side Story's" groundbreaking score. The evening will also feature a welcome by Paterson Mayor André Sayegh.

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By Johanna DeBiase - Taos News
August 22, 2019

Celebrities always hold a special power over the general populace. People are drawn to fame like they’re drawn to the popular girl in high school. We want to be near to them to absorb some of their shine. But what if you have no choice in the matter? What if the celebrity is your own dad?

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Café Classicale with Felice Coral - WOMR / WFMR
August 13, 2019

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By Robin Collier - KCEI 90.1 FM - CulturalEnergy.org
August 2019

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By Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune
July 28, 2019

Though Bernstein remains a legendary figure who died in 1990 at age 72, the man behind the mystique shone through lucidly on Saturday evening, thanks in large part to the narration of Jamie Bernstein, his daughter. Such onstage recitations often range from ponderous to irritating, but Jamie Bernstein’s expertly crafted script – and exuberant delivery – took us inside the man’s life in exquisitely succinct fashion.

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By Scott C. Morgan - Daily Herald
June 14, 2019

Centennial celebrations tied to the birth of late composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein officially ended last year. But the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park is keeping the party going with "Bernstein 101: The Celebration Continues," featuring a series of classical concerts, stage performances, film screenings and the Grammy Museum's traveling "Leonard Bernstein at 100" exhibit…

Jamie Bernstein is returning to Ravinia this summer to promote her father's legacy as a concert narrator and a pre-screening panelist to two Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances: "Lenny: A Musical Portrait in Symphony, Song and Story" on Saturday, July 27, and "On the Waterfront" (a live performance of Bernstein's score for the 1954 film).

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By Bill Brownstein - Montreal Gazette
May 28, 2019

The choirs of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim and St. Matthias Anglican Church will join forces for the first time at a tribute to Leonard Bernstein — a sign of religious unity in a time of division.

Congregation Shaar Hashomayim and St. Matthias Anglican Church are two of the oldest religious institutions in the city, dating back, respectively, to 1846 and 1875. They boast among the most renowned choirs in the land. They are across the street from one another, mere steps away, in Westmount. Yet for the first time in their histories, their choirs will be joining forces on stage, in a tribute to the music of legendary maestro and composer Leonard Bernstein.

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Hosted by Bill Radke - KUOW.org
April 1, 2019

Leonard Bernstein was the most famous American conductor/composer of his day. His daughter Jamie, a filmmaker and music educator, has written a memoir of her life with him called Famous Father Girl. She’s in town for the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, which is screening a documentary called “Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life.”

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By Dusty Somers - Special to The Seattle Times
March 20, 2019

To watch Leonard Bernstein conduct is to be brought under the spell of his exuberance — the grand sweep of his gestures, the intense rictus of his expression. Georg Wübbolt’s hourlong documentary “Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life” opens with a montage of impassioned conducting, and the effect is electrifying.

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By Andrew Taylor - The Sydney Morning Herald
March 14, 2019

Six decades is a long time to live with an attention seeker, but Jamie Bernstein has only kind words to say about her younger, showier sibling.

“I was five when it came out so I can barely remember a time in my life when we didn’t have West Side Story around us,” she says. “We love our fourth sibling, but I bet our Dad got impatient with his fourth child because it got so much attention at the expense of all those other children he composed.”

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By Judith Reveal - New York Journal of Books
January 2019

“This is a book that is read once, and then once again, and again—each time gaining new insight into a true maestro.”

Leonard Bernstein 100 by Steve J. Sherman with Jamie Bernstein, is a love affair between Leonard Bernstein and the camera, with invaluable information about the maestro’s life and career.

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By Rena Silverman - New York Times
December 11, 1976

A collection of photographs of Mr. Bernstein, shot by some of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, capture the American classical music maestro on and off the stage.

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By Keith Mankin - Theater Jones
November 8, 2018

Dallas — One of the outstanding passions of Leonard Bernstein’s life was his dedication to popularizing classical music. Nowhere was this more evident in his work on the NY Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts. These regular Saturday afternoon lectures dissected both large and fine points of music from specific composers to basics of rhythm and harmony. Although they began before the great conductor’s tenure and continue to this day, almost a quarter century after his death, they are intrinsically woven into Bernstein’s legacy.

The legacy of teaching and popularization has been carried forth by another Bernstein, his daughter, Jamie, who is a musician, author and teacher in her own right and, along with her siblings, a director of the Bernstein Foundation. She has developed programs for the younger generation that are similar in scope and tone to her father’s, with the added benefit of being able to use his prodigious catalogue of music as their subject. One such program, The Bernstein Beat, will be presented on as part of the DSO’s weekend long Bernstein Festival during the continued celebration of the composer’s Centenary.

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By Joy Horowitz - Los Angeles Review of Books
October 18, 2018

THE CENTENNIAL OF Leonard Bernstein’s birth has inspired lavish, seemingly unending celebrations around the world — concerts, museum exhibits, and competing biopics starring Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal extolling the musical genius of the great conductor, composer, and showman. But there is one clear-eyed insider’s view that should not be missed: a new memoir from the maestro’s first-born daughter, Jamie Bernstein. Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein is a remarkable tribute, not simply because the author reveals deeply intimate aspects of her family history but because she does so with an abiding love and honesty.

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By Cassa Niedringhaus - Daily Camera CU News
September 28, 2018

The chatter of hundreds of local third-graders filled the University of Colorado's Macky Auditorium on Friday as they awaited a Young People's Concert celebrating the late composer Leonard Bernstein.

After the CU Symphony Orchestra led with a performance of "Overture to Candide," Jamie Bernstein came on stage. Jamie Bernstein, one of Leonard Bernstein's three children, is an author and filmmaker and hosted the concert. It was one of dozens of events the CU College of Music organized during September and October to celebrate what would have been Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday.

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Produced by Mark Hudspeth - CBS News
September 23, 2018

He remains one of music's indisputable legends, and this year marks the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth. Among the celebrants is our Mo Rocca:

Jamie Bernstein, the first-born of Bernstein's three children, took Rocca through the Grammy Museum exhibit now touring the country in honor of her father's 100th birthday – part of a worldwide celebration of his life and work.

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