Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listener's Companion - by Kenneth LaFave
Leonard Bernstein is a household name. Most know him for his classic musical reworking of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as Broadway’s West Side Story. But Bernstein accomplished so much more as a composer, and his body of work is both broad and varied. He composed ballets (Fancy Free, Facsimile, Dybbuk), operas (Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, A Quiet Place), musicals (On the Town, Wonderful Town), film scores (On the Waterfront), symphonies, choral works, chamber music pieces, art songs, and piano works.
In Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listener’s Companion, Kenneth LaFave guides readers past Bernstein’s famously tortured personal problems and into the clarity and balance of his Serenade after Plato’s Symposium for Violin and Orchestra, the intense drama of his music for On the Waterfront, the existential cosmography of his three symphonies, and his vibrant works for the musical stage. Perhaps the most famous American classical musician born in the twentieth century, Bernstein divided his time between composing, conducting, writing, and teaching, a busy schedule—especially his conducting of major orchestras—that set his work as composer at a disadvantage. Often generated in short spurts, his work carries an urgency—and even an element of improvisational genius—that he flavored with his eclectic embrace of jazz, folk song, Jewish cantorial music, and innovations in contemporary classical theory. The result is a body of work that is beguilingly melodic, incomparably rhythmic, and irrepressibly individual.
Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listener’s Companion is the ideal work for any reader seeking to learn how to listen across the spectrum of Bernstein’s musical output.
Recording artist Ricky Asc (currently starring on Broadway in Boop! The Musical under the name Ricky Schroeder) has released a song and music video just in time for the NYC Pride dancefloors. Learn more!
The Billy Joel Project, the debut album from The Broadway Ensemble – an 11-member cast with a combined 48 Broadway credits – has been released on streaming and digital formats Friday, July 11, with a CD edition to follow later this summer.
Boston-based vocalist Brian De Lorenzo will mark the release of his new album Toast of the Town, Volume 1 with a concert on Tuesday, June 17 at 7:30 PM at Club Café’s Moonshine Room. The performance will feature the Tom LaMark Orchestra, also featured on the album.
Theatre Communications Group has announced the upcoming publication of three acclaimed plays: Ain’t No Mo’ by Jordan E. Cooper, Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee, and Public Obscenities by Shayok Misha Chowdhury.
Frank “Fraver” Verlizzo, the theater poster designer whose imagery defined decades of Broadway hits, has released a new novel. Learn more about 'Scenery of the Crime”, the first in the Retro Broadway Mystery Series.
Broadway performer and rising recording artist Omar Madden has officially released his debut EP, Thoughts & Feels, now available on all major streaming platforms.
CENTER STAGE RECORDS has released “Magic” from the forthcoming live West End cast recording of John Casssavetes’ Opening Night – with music and lyrics by three-time Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Listen here!
Sam & Company, a genre-spanning musical theatre album by Sam Nasar, will stream everywhere in June. Learn more about the album and about where its proceeds will be donated to here!
Left on Tenth, the new play based on the bestselling memoir by Delia Ephron, is now available for purchase through Dramatists Play Service. Learn more here!
The cast recording has been released for Jo - The Little Women Musical, a new musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's iconic coming-of-age novel Little Women. Listen to the album here!
BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to 'An Ode to Aunt March’s Urn' from the upcoming studio album Jo - The Little Women Musical. Learn more and listen here!
Club44 Records has released Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition – the urbane baritone’s smart and sophisticated romp through the Great American Songbook. Listen here!
Theater star and Nashville recording artist RACHEL POTTER – best known for appearances on Fox TV’s “The X Factor” and the Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Evita – has released her new album Stages. Listen here!
Club44 Records will release of Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition. BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to 'One More Minute' here! Learn more about the album.
Get an exclusive first listen to Rachel Potter singing a Waitress Medley from her upcoming album Stages! Learn more about the album and see how to download and stream.
The Drama Book Shop will present, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, author events designed to entertain and enlighten. Learn more and see how to attend.
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS will release Legally Blonde: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) on vinyl for the first time. Learn more and see how to purchase and stream the album!
Drama Book Shop will present a conversation with author Julie Gilbert about her acclaimed book, 'Giant Love,' (Pantheon) the compelling story of the writing of Edna Ferber's celebrated novel 'Giant'. Learn more!
Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced his long-awaited memoir, Cat On The Road To Findout. Coming later this year, the new autobiography is an extraordinary soul-baring journey through the triumphs, trials, and transcendental quest of one of music’s most enigmatic figures of our time.
Cabaret Classics will release Toast of the Town, Volume 1, the new big band album from Boston-based vocalist Brian De Lorenzo, on CD and streaming and digital platforms in June. Learn more about the album here!
Following Jill Sobule's tragic passing last week, a new music video from her autobiographical musical F*ck 7th Grade has been shared by her representatives. Watch it here.
Jeffrey Seller has made the theatre that has changed my life. I will always remember being twelve years old and being obsessed with all that is Rent. This show changed the face of theatre. He did it again with Hamilton and In The Heights as well. His artistic blueprint is all over the DNA of Broadway. His new memoir 'Theatre Kid' is out and it is a must read for theatre fans and artists alike. Watch in this video!
Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label has released The 12 – A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). You can now learn more about the musical, and listen here!
The original cast recording of Broadway's Hamilton has become the first original cast album to hit 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. The album was originally released in September of 2015.
The Blues Brothers universe is returning, beginning with a brand new original graphic novel: The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake. Written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner, the graphic novel serves as a sequel to the 1980 film.
After announcing a robust new 16-LP box set in 2024, Harry Potter: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Rhino now shares four individual Motion Picture Soundtrack LPs from the Harry Potter franchise.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a newly restored and remastered version of the movie will be unleashed in breathtaking 4K Ultra HD.
On December 2, 2025, Penguin Workshop will publish DOLLY PARTON’S BILLY THE KID DANCES HIS HEART OUT, the third standalone children’s picture book in Parton’s bestselling series featuring French bulldog, her god-dog, Billy the Kid.
In celebration of DRAG: The Musical’s dynamite Off-Broadway run at New World Stages, DRAG: The Musical LIVE (The Cast Recording) is now available. Listen to it here!
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS has released the new EP from Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Lena Hall, Songs from Your Friends & Neighbors. Listen here!