# Jamie Bernstein talks about her father Leonard Bernstein



## Guest

This illuminating and amusing talk, to promote her book, sees Jamie Bernstein talking about life at home with Leonard Bernstein and family. She talked about the amazing people they had in their lives and who came to their apartment, the raucous laughter and parties (I kept thinking about the neighbours!!). And she talked about cigarettes being a feature of their lives; that part is very compelling and disturbing.

Highly recommended:


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## Open Book

I've been watching online videos from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, their substitute for a summer season this year. Jamie Bernstein introduces some of them. She revealed who her father was (I had had no idea) and reminisced about him trying to make the Mahler 4th symphony "kid friendly".

Do you know how musical she is? She was described as an author and other things but not as a musician.


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## Merl

Open Book said:


> I've been watching online videos from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, their substitute for a summer season this year. Jamie Bernstein introduces some of them. She revealed who her father was (I had had no idea) and reminisced about him trying to make the Mahler 4th symphony "kid friendly".
> 
> Do you know how musical she is? She was described as an author and other things but not as a musician.


From an interview with Jamie, some years ago...
_
"We all took piano lessons, and we all disliked our piano lessons and never practiced. We all had terrible attitudes and quit as soon as we could. In some families when the parents are professional musicians, kids take to it like ducks to water. And in others they don't. And for whatever reason in ours, we're in the latter category. However, in my case, when I quit my piano lessons around 16, I started to play the piano for fun, and I taught myself the guitar. That became my way of having music in my life. And I pursued a career for a few years as a singer-songwriter. I moved out to L.A., I made demo tapes and shopped them around, the whole deal. I even got a record deal eventually, but the record was not released, and that was just about the time I got married. And I thought "Oh the hell with this, I'm going to move on, start my family and be an actual grownup instead of pursuing this ridiculous goal of being some kind of rock star. What kind of real-life adult pursuit is that?" So I set it aside."_


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## starthrower

That talk got me going down the YouTube Bernstein rabbit hole since yesterday. I watched two documentaries and now I'm watching his presentation on The Planets from 1972.


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