Music Was IT

Beginning with Lenny’s childhood in Boston and ending with his triumphant conducting debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic when he was just twenty-five, Music Was IT draws readers into the energetic, passionate, challenging, music-filled life of young Leonard Bernstein. Archival photographs, mostly from the Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress, illustrate this fascinating biography, which also includes a foreword by Bernstein’s daughter Jamie. Extensive back matter includes biographies of important people in Bernstein’s life, as well as a discography of his music.Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..ix
1. Moynik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. In Love with a Piano . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Crazed and Raging Fingers . . . . .21
4. Lenny the Showman . . . . . . . . . 33
5. Lenny at Harvard . . . . . . . . . . . .45
6. Genius Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..53
7. Crazy Artist Nuts . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8. November 14th . . . . . . . . . . . . ..63
9. Glimmering Possibility . . . . . . . ..73
10. Me? A Conductor? . . . . . . . . . .77
11. Work and Work and Work . . . . .85
12. What to Do Next? . . . . . . . . . . 103
13. On the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
14. Suddenly Famous . . . . . . . . . . 125
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Lenny’s Music (includes Discography and Bibliography) . . . . . . . . .151
Sources of Quotations . . . . . . . . . .157
Photo Credits and Permissions . . . .169
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175"...highly readable and inspiring..." - Booklist, starred review "An impeccably researched and told biography of Leonard Bernstein’s musical apprenticeship, from toddlerhood to his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 25."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Rubin spins [Leonard Bernstein's] biography into a tale that reads as smoothly and compellingly as a novel."
--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books * A Junior Library Guild Selection

* Bulletin Blue Ribbon

* Carter G. Woodson Book Award (Middle Grade)

* National Jewish Book Award finalist

* NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People

* Sydney Taylor Book Award

* YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalistSusan Goldman Rubin is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, including Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter (Abrams) and The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin (Holiday House), both ALA Notable Books. Susan lives in Malibu, California.From the start Leonard loved music. When he was about two year old, his parents, Sam and Jennie, stayed with friends who had a summer house at Revere Beach near Boston. The friends had a piano in the living room, and whenever Leonard heard someone playing, he pressed his ear to the closed door. "Moynik!" he shouted, his own word for music.
At home in Mattapan, a suburb of Boston, he would cry "Moynik!" with tears running down his face until his mother put a record on the windup Victrola. Then Lenny, as he was called, would
stop crying and listen happily. The Victrola was Lenny’s faithful companion and, often, his only playmate.