Dearest Lenny

Dearest Lenny PDF Author: Mari Yoshihara
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190465786
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Much has been written about Leonard Bernstein, a musician of extraordinary talent who was legendary for his passionate love of life and many relationships. In this work, Mari Yoshihara reveals the deeply emotional connections Bernstein formed with two little-known Japanese individuals, which she narrates through their personal letters that have never been seen before. Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and art with a history of Bernstein's transformation from an American icon to a world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century. The articulate, moving letters of Kazuko Amano--a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in 1947 and became a close family friend--and Kunihiko Hashimoto--a young man who fell in love with the maestro in 1979 and later became his business representative--convey the meaning Bernstein and his music had at various stages of their lives. The letters also shed light on how Bernstein's compositions, recordings, and performances touched his audiences around the world. The book further traces the making of a global Bernstein amidst the shifting landscape of classical music that made this American celebrity turn increasingly to Europe and Japan. The dramatic change in Japan's place in the world and its relationship to the United States during the postwar decades shaped Bernstein's connection to the country. Ultimately, Dearest Lenny is a story of relationships--between the two individuals and Bernstein, the United States and the world, art and commerce, artists and the state, private and public, conventions and transgressions, dreams and realities--that were at the core of Bernstein's greatest achievements and challenges and that made him truly a maestro of the world. Dearest Lenny paints a poignant portrait of individuals connected across cultures, languages, age, and status through correspondence and music--and the world that shaped their relationships.

Dearest Lenny

Dearest Lenny PDF Author: Mari Yoshihara
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190465786
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book

Book Description
Much has been written about Leonard Bernstein, a musician of extraordinary talent who was legendary for his passionate love of life and many relationships. In this work, Mari Yoshihara reveals the deeply emotional connections Bernstein formed with two little-known Japanese individuals, which she narrates through their personal letters that have never been seen before. Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and art with a history of Bernstein's transformation from an American icon to a world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century. The articulate, moving letters of Kazuko Amano--a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in 1947 and became a close family friend--and Kunihiko Hashimoto--a young man who fell in love with the maestro in 1979 and later became his business representative--convey the meaning Bernstein and his music had at various stages of their lives. The letters also shed light on how Bernstein's compositions, recordings, and performances touched his audiences around the world. The book further traces the making of a global Bernstein amidst the shifting landscape of classical music that made this American celebrity turn increasingly to Europe and Japan. The dramatic change in Japan's place in the world and its relationship to the United States during the postwar decades shaped Bernstein's connection to the country. Ultimately, Dearest Lenny is a story of relationships--between the two individuals and Bernstein, the United States and the world, art and commerce, artists and the state, private and public, conventions and transgressions, dreams and realities--that were at the core of Bernstein's greatest achievements and challenges and that made him truly a maestro of the world. Dearest Lenny paints a poignant portrait of individuals connected across cultures, languages, age, and status through correspondence and music--and the world that shaped their relationships.

Leonard Bernstein in Context

Leonard Bernstein in Context PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Wells
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108875912
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Designed for students, aficionados of classical music, and historians, this volume offers a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive view of one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century at his 100th anniversary. Scholars from diverse backgrounds and fields have contributed rich insights into Bernstein's life and work in an approachable style, shedding light on Bernstein's social, professional and ideological contexts including his contemporaries and rivals on Broadway, his artistic collaborations, his celebrity status as a conductor on the international concert circuit, and his involvement in music education via broadcasting. From his early education, through his conducting and composing careers, to his fame as musical and cultural ambassador to the world, this book views Bernstein the man and the artist and provides a fascinating overview of American classical music culture during Bernstein's long career in the public spotlight.

We Are Going to Be Lucky

We Are Going to Be Lucky PDF Author: Elizabeth L. Fox
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438470584
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
Tells the story of a young couple in love during World War II, and the difficulties they faced both at war and on the home front. We Are Going to Be Lucky tells the story of a first-generation Jewish American couple separated by war, captured in their own words. Lenny and Diana Miller were married just one year before America entered World War II. Deeply committed to social justice and bonded by love, both vowed to write to one another daily after Lenny enlisted in 1943. As Lenny made his way through basic training in Mississippi to the beaches of Normandy and eventually to the Battle of the Bulge, Diana struggled financially, giving up her job as a machinist to become a mother. Their contributions to the war effort—Lenny’s crucial missions as an Army scout and Diana’s work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard—are the backdrop to their daily correspondence, including insightful discussions of democracy, politics, and economic hardship. Faced with grueling conditions overseas, Lenny managed to preserve every letter his wife sent, mailing them back to her for safekeeping. The couple’s extraordinary letters, preserved in their entirety, reveal and reflect the excruciating personal sacrifices endured by both soldiers at war and their young families back home. After decades of gathering dust, their words have been carefully transcribed and thoughtfully edited and annotated by Elizabeth L. Fox, Lenny and Diana’s daughter. “This beautiful book reveals both the quotidian lives on the military and home front as well as big political issues of the day like the death of Mussolini and the fight against fascism. Throughout it all, the reader gets glimpses of American society through a first-generation Jewish American perspective as they comment on the mundane details of daily finances as well as looming issues like racial politics in the wartime United States. The result is a pure joy and a window into a lost world.” —David Shneer, author of Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust “At the heart of this fascinating and educational tale about a soldier and his wife during wartime is a wonderful love story. Lenny and Diana become relatable almost immediately. Their excitement at their experiences—the eagerness with which they anticipate their few reunions, the battles he is in, the pregnancy and birth of their daughter—draws readers in and allows them to live through the era as ordinary people experienced it day in and day out.” — Richard Aquila, author of Home Front Soldier: The Story of a GI and His Italian American Family During World War II “This is a truly remarkable story, contextualized just enough by the editor to provide the reader with a sufficient understanding of the history of the times without taking away the daily realities of a young couple making their way through letters and the occasional souvenir, till their final reunion. It pulls you in in such a way that you will not want to put the book down until the finish.” — Melissa Suzanne Fisher, author of Wall Street Women “The correspondence of Lenny and Diana is a compelling account of the war though the eyes of an American soldier in Europe and his wife who stayed in the United States. The drama centers on the birth of their first child in America and Lenny’s increasingly dangerous war. Lenny was to go on to become an eminent scholar of John Milton, and these letters show the young scholar at work, struggling to obtain research materials while recovering from serious injuries sustained at the Battle of the Bulge.” — Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester “Is there any genre of writing more immediate and soul-bearing than the love letter? In We Are Going to Be Lucky, Elizabeth L. Fox allows us inside the lives of one New York couple as they endure the challenges of living apart through World War II—Lenny from the battlefront and Diana at home in Brooklyn. From arduous training to the difficulties of factory work, from the hopefulness of pregnancy to a near-fatal injury and painful convalescence, this carefully edited collection of correspondence reveals the pain, sacrifice, and everyday struggles—and magnanimity—of the Greatest Generation, and the universal beauty of human connection.” — Julie Scelfo, author of The Women Who Made New York

The Thurstons of the Old Palmetto State, Or, Varieties of Southern Life

The Thurstons of the Old Palmetto State, Or, Varieties of Southern Life PDF Author: John H. Caldwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description


The Thurstons of the Old Palmetto State

The Thurstons of the Old Palmetto State PDF Author: John H. Caldwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description


The Leonard Bernstein Letters

The Leonard Bernstein Letters PDF Author: Leonard Bernstein
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300186541
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 903

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Book Description
“With their intellectual brilliance, humor and wonderful eye for detail, Leonard Bernstein’s letters blow all biographies out of the water.”—The Economist (2013 Book of the Year) Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician—a brilliant conductor who attained international superstar status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life—musical and personal—and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities. Bernstein’s letters tell much about this complex man, his collaborators, his mentors, and others close to him. His galaxy of correspondents encompassed, among others, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Thornton Wilder, Boris Pasternak, Bette Davis, Adolph Green, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and family members including his wife Felicia and his sister Shirley. The majority of these letters have never been published before. They have been carefully chosen to demonstrate the breadth of Bernstein’s musical interests, his constant struggle to find the time to compose, his turbulent and complex sexuality, his political activities, and his endless capacity for hard work. Beyond all this, these writings provide a glimpse of the man behind the legends: his humanity, warmth, volatility, intellectual brilliance, wonderful eye for descriptive detail, and humor. “The correspondence from and to the remarkable conductor is full of pleasure and insights.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “Exhaustive, thrilling [and] indispensable.”—USA Today (starred review)

Leonard Bernstein and Washington, DC

Leonard Bernstein and Washington, DC PDF Author: Daniel Abraham
Publisher: Eastman Studies in Music
ISBN: 1580469736
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Composer, conductor, activist, and icon of twentieth-century America, Leonard Bernstein (1918-90) had a rich association with Washington, DC. Although he never lived there, the U.S. capital was the site of some of the most important moments in his life and work, as he engaged with the nation's struggles and triumphs. By examining Bernstein through the lens of DC, this book offers new insights into his life and music from the 1940s through the 1980s, including his role in building DC's artistic landscape, his political-diplomatic aims, his works that received premieres and other early performances in DC, and his relationships with the nation's liberal and conservative political elites. The collection also contributes new perspectives on twentieth-century American history, government, and culture, helping to elucidate the political function of music in American democracy. The essays in Leonard Bernstein and Washington, DC, all newly written by leading authorities, situate this important American cultural figure in the seat of United States government. The result is a fresh new angle on Leonard Bernstein, American politics, and American culture in the second half of the twentieth century. Daniel Abraham is Professor of Music at American University, Alicia Kopfstein-Penk is Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at American University, and Andrew H. Weaver is Professor of Musicology at The Catholic University of America.

Super Sad True Love Story

Super Sad True Love Story PDF Author: Gary Shteyngart
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 067960359X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • The Seattle Times • O: The Oprah Magazine • Maureen Corrigan, NPR • Salon • Slate • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • Charlotte Observer • The Globe and Mail • Vancouver Sun • Montreal Gazette • Kirkus Reviews In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?

Aaron Copland and His World

Aaron Copland and His World PDF Author: Carol J. Oja
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691186154
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
Aaron Copland and His World reassesses the legacy of one of America's best-loved composers at a pivotal moment--as his life and work shift from the realm of personal memory to that of history. This collection of seventeen essays by distinguished scholars of American music explores the stages of cultural change on which Copland's long life (1900 to 1990) unfolded: from the modernist experiments of the 1920s, through the progressive populism of the Great Depression and the urgencies of World War II, to postwar political backlash and the rise of serialism in the 1950s and the cultural turbulence of the 1960s. Continually responding to an ever-changing political and cultural panorama, Copland kept a firm focus on both his private muse and the public he served. No self-absorbed recluse, he was very much a public figure who devoted his career to building support systems to help composers function productively in America. This book critiques Copland's work in these shifting contexts. The topics include Copland's role in shaping an American school of modern dance; his relationship with Leonard Bernstein; his homosexuality, especially as influenced by the writings of André Gide; and explorations of cultural nationalism. Copland's rich correspondence with the composer and critic Arthur Berger, who helped set the parameters of Copland's reception, is published here in its entirety, edited by Wayne Shirley. The contributors include Emily Abrams, Paul Anderson, Elliott Antokoletz, Leon Botstein, Martin Brody, Elizabeth Crist, Morris Dickstein, Lynn Garafola, Melissa de Graaf, Neil Lerner, Gail Levin, Beth Levy, Vivian Perlis, Howard Pollack, and Larry Starr.

Lenny

Lenny PDF Author: Laura McVeigh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848408241
Category : Abandoned children
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Ten-year old Lenny wants to save his home, Roseville, Louisiana, from the sinkhole that threatens to destroy it. His mother, Mari-Rose, unable to cope and dreaming of a better life, has abandoned him. His father, Jim, has returned from war suffering from PTSD. Lenny is homeless, sleeping rough in the bayou swampland, and his only true friends in the world are young Lucy Albert, the lonely town librarian, and long-retired schoolteacher Miss Julie Betterdine Valéry - who is still waiting on the return of her husband, Stanley, sent to war in Korea in 1952. Travelling between two storylines - the first taking place in 2011 in the Ubari Sand Sea in Libya, the second along the banks of False River, Louisiana, when the ripple effects of the Great Recession, pollution, environmental destruction and the rapidly rising waters are causing whole towns to empty out all along the Bayou, LENNY is a story about how we treat our planet and each other. It examines the nature of time and reality, conflict, family and love, and explores how hope and imagination can save us."--