A Guided Tour of an Insomniac’s Brain

A chance for an intimate look at the offstage life of Leonard Bernstein, presented by his daughter and three musicians this Friday evening at the Green Music Center. Jamie Bernstein, with singer Amy Burton and pianists John Musto and Michael Boriskin showcase his eclectic musical taste, and his natural need to teach in a multimedia cabaret called Late Night with Leonard Bernstein.

There’s more information at the Green Music Center‘s website.

“Well, the thing about my dad, and this is what we are conveying in our presentation, is that he was such a people person. He just loved to be surrounded by people as much as possible,” Jamie Bernstein says. “His idea of fun after hours was to be surrounded by pals or students, or any convivial group that could cluster around the piano and play fun stuff, or sing songs or share the fun of music.” But despite his performances on the podiums of the great concert halls around the world, his musical tastes could be quite lowbrow: “When he went to the piano, he might play something of his own, but more likely he would play some ditty he loved from the radio when he was growing up, or he might play an ad jingle, or something from pop music on the radio, it could be just about anything. His mind was like a lint collector. Everything got stuck in there, so he had access, instant access to all sorts of things.” And it wasn’t only the people who went to parties with him who experienced this. “In the hour before dinner, he might go to the piano and say, ‘Remember that Flintstones episode we saw last night, and the music went like that?’ or he might talk about something he was noticing in a Tchaikovsky symphony. Because he was always teaching.”