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Jamie Bernstein shares her father’s legacy with audiences
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BY: ARLENE FINE Senior Staff Reporter
“We didn’t know how great we had it,” admits Jamie Bernstein. “Every time we went to a concert, Leonard Bernstein was conducting.”
To share her famous father’s genius and legendary music, Bernstein’s eldest daughter has composed the symphonic pops program “Bernstein on Broadway” that will be performed at Blossom on Aug. 24. Serving as narrator, she will bring an added dimension to her father’s music by providing background information and personal anecdotes.
The CJN spoke to Jamie Bernstein about her life as the daughter of America’s most famous composer.
Q. Why did you choose to focus on Bernstein’s Broadway music instead of other more classical works?
A. My father’s Broadway shows are irresistible. He was a bridge builder and brought the pizzazz and gusto of Broadway to the concert hall and the sophistication of concert hall to Broadway to create brilliant, timeless music. There is no one alive who comes close to his musical genius.
Q. How do you most resemble your father?
A. I inherited the ham gene from him. As I narrate the “Bernstein on Broadway” concert, I communicate his enthusiasm as well as my own. When I get excited about a piece of music during a performance, I feel his spirit in me.
Q. What was the most difficult part of being a celebrity’s daughter?
A. It was hard sharing my dad so generously with the rest of the world. However, when he was home, he was totally there and spent more time with us than the average dad with a 9-5 job. Even when he was composing, he enjoyed having us around, and we never felt unwelcome in his studio.
Q. What is the best memory of your father?
A. We were both night owls, and I often would meet him in the kitchen at 2 a.m. He liked eating baby food out of the jar n his favorite was veal; he also enjoyed sucking the innards of a raw egg.
He was friendly with a farmer near our home in Connecticut, and he could be found in the farmer’s fields pulling fresh corn from stalks and eating it raw. He emerged from the cornrows covered in cornhusks and happiness.
Q. Describe some of the most interesting people you ever met.
A. The Beatles! On Feb. 16, 1964, my dad and I drove to New York from our home in Connecticut to The Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles had returned to America for their second tour, and Dad was consulting with them about setting John Lennon’s poetry to music.
Imagine being a total Beatle-phile at 12, the age when it mattered the most, and having your father take you backstage to meet your idols! I also remember that split second when we stood outside their dressing room door and I knew when the door opened the Beatles, the four most famous men on earth, would be inside.
Q. What was the biggest disappointment in your life?
A. I wish my parents had found a way for my brother, sister and me to enjoy our music lessons more. Although I don’t blame our teachers, we hated our piano lessons and never practiced. I regret that very much.
I am a songwriter, but I do not play piano well. I would have liked to have developed musical chops like the children of other famous musicians.
Q. Are any of your children musical?
A. Both my daughter Frankie and son Evan show great musical ability and are astonishing singers. They have true-blue perfect pitch. I kvell when they perform publicly.
Q. How did your father express his Judaism?
A. My father was deeply religious and spiritual, and he was strongly connected to his Jewish heritage. He loved Israel and was there at the very beginning of Israel’s statehood. He never lost his excitement for the country.
Our family did not attend synagogue regularly, but we celebrated all the Jewish holidays in grand style. Our seders were marvelous. My father was the leader, and there was much discussion at the table, everyone talking at once. I still love it when the whole mishpochah gets together, usually under my roof. My brother Alexander is now the leader, and he is more efficient than my father, who used to indulge and encourage transgressions.
Q. What is your favorite story about your father?
A. My father came from very humble beginnings. His immigrant father Samuel made sheitels (wigs). As his business grew, he hoped that my father would join him, but my dad was only interested in music n much to his parents’ chagrin. They remember that in their shtetl, musicians were itinerant and often begged bowls of borscht after they performed.
When my father became famous, someone asked my grandfather why he had been so reluctant to give his son music lessons. He replied, “Who knew my son would grow up to be Leonard Bernstein?”
afine@cjn.org
For concert tickets call (216) 231-1111 or
800-686-1141, both of which reach the Ticket Office at Severance Hall.
To share her famous father’s genius and legendary music, Bernstein’s eldest daughter has composed the symphonic pops program “Bernstein on Broadway” that will be performed at Blossom on Aug. 24. Serving as narrator, she will bring an added dimension to her father’s music by providing background information and personal anecdotes.
The CJN spoke to Jamie Bernstein about her life as the daughter of America’s most famous composer.
Q. Why did you choose to focus on Bernstein’s Broadway music instead of other more classical works?
A. My father’s Broadway shows are irresistible. He was a bridge builder and brought the pizzazz and gusto of Broadway to the concert hall and the sophistication of concert hall to Broadway to create brilliant, timeless music. There is no one alive who comes close to his musical genius.
Q. How do you most resemble your father?
A. I inherited the ham gene from him. As I narrate the “Bernstein on Broadway” concert, I communicate his enthusiasm as well as my own. When I get excited about a piece of music during a performance, I feel his spirit in me.
Q. What was the most difficult part of being a celebrity’s daughter?
A. It was hard sharing my dad so generously with the rest of the world. However, when he was home, he was totally there and spent more time with us than the average dad with a 9-5 job. Even when he was composing, he enjoyed having us around, and we never felt unwelcome in his studio.
Q. What is the best memory of your father?
A. We were both night owls, and I often would meet him in the kitchen at 2 a.m. He liked eating baby food out of the jar n his favorite was veal; he also enjoyed sucking the innards of a raw egg.
He was friendly with a farmer near our home in Connecticut, and he could be found in the farmer’s fields pulling fresh corn from stalks and eating it raw. He emerged from the cornrows covered in cornhusks and happiness.
Q. Describe some of the most interesting people you ever met.
A. The Beatles! On Feb. 16, 1964, my dad and I drove to New York from our home in Connecticut to The Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles had returned to America for their second tour, and Dad was consulting with them about setting John Lennon’s poetry to music.
Imagine being a total Beatle-phile at 12, the age when it mattered the most, and having your father take you backstage to meet your idols! I also remember that split second when we stood outside their dressing room door and I knew when the door opened the Beatles, the four most famous men on earth, would be inside.
Q. What was the biggest disappointment in your life?
A. I wish my parents had found a way for my brother, sister and me to enjoy our music lessons more. Although I don’t blame our teachers, we hated our piano lessons and never practiced. I regret that very much.
I am a songwriter, but I do not play piano well. I would have liked to have developed musical chops like the children of other famous musicians.
Q. Are any of your children musical?
A. Both my daughter Frankie and son Evan show great musical ability and are astonishing singers. They have true-blue perfect pitch. I kvell when they perform publicly.
Q. How did your father express his Judaism?
A. My father was deeply religious and spiritual, and he was strongly connected to his Jewish heritage. He loved Israel and was there at the very beginning of Israel’s statehood. He never lost his excitement for the country.
Our family did not attend synagogue regularly, but we celebrated all the Jewish holidays in grand style. Our seders were marvelous. My father was the leader, and there was much discussion at the table, everyone talking at once. I still love it when the whole mishpochah gets together, usually under my roof. My brother Alexander is now the leader, and he is more efficient than my father, who used to indulge and encourage transgressions.
Q. What is your favorite story about your father?
A. My father came from very humble beginnings. His immigrant father Samuel made sheitels (wigs). As his business grew, he hoped that my father would join him, but my dad was only interested in music n much to his parents’ chagrin. They remember that in their shtetl, musicians were itinerant and often begged bowls of borscht after they performed.
When my father became famous, someone asked my grandfather why he had been so reluctant to give his son music lessons. He replied, “Who knew my son would grow up to be Leonard Bernstein?”
afine@cjn.org
For concert tickets call (216) 231-1111 or
800-686-1141, both of which reach the Ticket Office at Severance Hall.
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