As the Brevard Music Center embarks on its season-long celebration of the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Artistic Director Keith Lockhart sat down with BMC’s Director of Marketing & Communications, Cally Jamis Vennare, to share some personal reflections on this distinguished and illustrious musician.
The BMC Leonard Bernstein Festival will be one of more than 2,000 other events on six continents to recognize the life and work of the iconic conductor, educator, performer, cultural ambassador, and humanitarian.
The following is a short excerpt from the Q&A with Maestro Lockhart. The full article will be featured in the 2018 edition of Overture Magazine.
Cally Jamis Vennare: What is the most important thing you hope to convey to our Brevard audiences about Leonard Bernstein and his work?
Keith Lockhart: One of the things that we are trying to show in our programming this year is the breadth and depth of his creative output—the staging of Candide, for example; our season finale performance of his Mass; the concerts featuring West Side Story, Age of Anxiety and Chichester Psalms.
Candide, in particular, is near and dear to my heart. This was the very first musical that I ever music-directed at a professional level. I personally believe that it couldn’t have been written by anyone other than Bernstein. It has lightness and a frothiness, a champagne-like quality that fits the subject matter just perfectly, and it’s also a really, really good piece for young operatic artists. I think it fits our Janiec Opera Company like a hand to a glove.
I have never done West Side Story with the film. But I’ve been told that ‘it is an amazing experience’ by those who have performed this version. I am looking forward to sitting in the audience and watching that one!
By highlighting these and other works, Brevard Music Center is presenting some of Bernstein’s greatest output and showing a wonderful variety of his music that is at the core of American classical music experience. We spend so much time celebrating the works of European masters like Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, and Dvôrak. And those works all deserve to be celebrated. But they must stand alongside Bernstein, Copland, and Gershwin—these masters gave American classical music its voice.
It’s wonderful for Brevard to be joining in with orchestras and institutions all around the world in celebrating the birth of one of the most compelling musicians of our time…or any other time. At Brevard, our educational mission is at the core of all we do. So it’s important to remember that we are not trying to do more Bernstein performances than anybody else, or more symposia, or anything like that. What we are trying to do is make sure we expose our students to a great musician and provide relevant context around his body of work.
THE 2018 BREVARD MUSIC CENTER | LEONARD BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL
Sun., June 24: Beloved Bernstein
Mon., July 9: Bernstein & Friends
Thurs., July 12: Leonard Bernstein/An American Icon (free lecture/details to come)
Fri., July 13: A Bernstein Celebration
Sat., July 14: West Side Story (movie + live symphony)
Sun., July 15: Bernstein the Educator
Thurs., July 26 & Sat., July 28: Candide (opera with English supertitles)
Sun., August 5: Season Finale: Bernstein’s Mass
Visit www.brevardmusic.org/bernstein for additional information.