Leonard Bernstein was a noted twentieth century musical figure who was a composer, conductor, writer, and teacher. Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918 and began learning piano at age ten. Two years later he started piano studies with Susan Williams at the New England Conservatory of Music.

His mother and father wanted Leonard to get a career that they considered was much more practical and sent him to the Boston Latin School during his teenager years. Immediately after graduating, he attended Harvard University, where he majored in music and trained with Walter Piston. While studying there, he met Aaron Copland who influenced Leonard greatly. Then he wrote a stage composition, The Birds which was a production of an ancient Greek comedy. This performance in 1939 was Leonard's very first arrival as a conductor. Bernstein wanted to become a concert pianist, but upon graduating he began to significantly learn orchestration with the Curtis Institute of Music inside Philadelphia.

During the summer, Leonard Bernstein studied music with the superb conductor, Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. In 1942, Koussevitzky requested Bernstein if he desired to become an assistant conductor at Tanglewood because of his emotionally enriched performances. After the performance, Arthur Rodzinzki requested him to be an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The crowd went wild after he conducted Schumann, Rozsa, Strauss, and Wagner's scores. The New York Times and many other news resources across the nation wrote that "A new luminary had arrived." Rodzinski was swift to capitalize on this opportunity for Bernstein and scheduled him to rehearse and conduct the orchestra in four concerts the upcoming month.

On January 28, 1944, Bernstein wrote a symphony called Jeremiah. It won the New York Music Critics' Circle award for best American work. He then created a ballet called Fancy Free, and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, and wrote a musical called On the Town which opened on Broadway.

He was also the conductor of the New York City Symphony from 1945 to 1948, where he worked for free. In 1954 he wrote the movie score to On the Waterfront, and in 1956 he was named among two principal conductors of the New York Philharmonic, sharing the undertaking with Dimitri Mitropoulos. Leonard married Felicia Montealegre Cohn in 1951 and had 3 children.

In 1957, West Side Story premiered at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. This dramatic musical had become one of Bernstein's popular compositions. The Winter Garden production of West Side Story ran for 732 performances before it started to tour around the globe. This well-known musical grew to become a film in 1961 and starred Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood.

In 1958, Bernstein became the sole music director of the New York Philharmonic, the first American-born conductor (and the youngest conductor) to earn that post in the 116-year history of the orchestra. He remained at the job until 1969, when he was named laureate conductor for life. In 1969, Leonard stepped down, after he had conducted more concerts than any of his predecessors and had programmed 36 world premieres which made become a musical celebrity-at-large. He conducted all over the world, attended festivals in his honor, and wrote books.

Bernstein made a Metropolitan Opera debut in 1972, conducting Bizet's Carmen, as well as a concert celebration for his 60th birthday at Wolf Trap. On Leonard's 70th birthday, he took the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic on European tours. Bernstein's final New York concert was at Carnegie Hall on March 11, 1990, and last conducting physical appearance was at Tanglewood on August 19. On October 14th in New York, just a couple months later, Bernstein died of old age.

Leonard Bernstein's extraordinary conducting performances and recordings of Mahler's symphonies launched Mahler's music to the planet. Bernstein also introduced numerous other American composers like Elliot Carter, Milton Babbitt, John Cage, and Gunther Schuller to his audiences. Leonard Left a great legacy behind to the world and will likely remain a everlasting iconic figure in American classical music.