Program: Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Piano Variations (1930) El Salón México (1936), arr. Leonard Bernstein. A collage of live performance, conversation, and historic document recitation illuminates a pivotal moment in Leonard Bernstein’s education. In 1938, Bernstein had his first exposure to American Modernism: learning Aaron Copland's Piano Variations, sitting at the keyboard with his Harvard philosophy professor, David Prall. The influence of Copland and Prall continued to guide Bernstein throughout his career as he became America’s maestro and paramount cultural ambassador. Hear recitations of Bernstein’s college papers and letters, plus philosophical essays by Professor Prall, after Michael Boriskin, esteemed concert pianist and artistic director of Copland House, performs and examines Piano Variations and other Copland masterworks.
Manhattan,