Leonard Bernstein is one of the most important and influential composers in history, and one of the first American conductors to be recognized internationally. In addition to that, Bernstein was also a conductor, a pianist, a music teacher, and an author. He composed the music for 1944’s On The Town, 1950’s Peter Pan, 1953’s Wonderful Time, and 1957’s West Side Story (together with Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins), among many other musicals and compositions. Bernstein won 16 Grammy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and two Tony Awards, and received the Kennedy Center Honor.

Now Bradley Cooper is set to play the legendary composer in the upcoming biopic Maestro. Carey Mulligan stars as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre, and Cooper is also directing Maestro, his first directorial effort since the massive success of another music-centered film, A Star is Born. Cooper was in a battle for Bernstein’s music rights with Jake Gyllenhaal’s Bernstein project, The American. Cooper and Maestro won that battle and the film went into production early this year, with Cooper also co-writing the screenplay with Spotlight’s Josh Singer. Maestro is scheduled to debut on Netflix in 2023, and as the above picture indicates, it looks like Cooper will be fully inhabiting the musician’s life, becoming unrecognizable in the process.

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Let’s take a look at the epic life and career of the inspiration for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Leonard Bernstein.

An Overview of Leonard Bernstein’s Life

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Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918. In Bernstein’s obituary in The New York Times, music critic Donal Henahan called Bernstein, “one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history.” Growing up as the son of a beauty supplies employee, his father Samuel wanted Leonard to take over the family business. But Leonard was destined for more. In fact, he became the youngest person to ever be named the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 40.

He led the orchestra for a decade, and rumor has it that at the time the Philharmonic had (or perhaps still has) a clause in its conductors’ contracts forbidding them from consuming iced tea while on the job. Legend has it that was because Bernstein consumed “iced tea” continuously on the job. Only Bernstein’s iced tea was really whiskey. While this rumor cannot be confirmed, according to a career musician who has made the rounds with several orchestras, it’s an often told story.

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Bernstein could have stuck to one area and been a great success, but he preferred to keep busy. He conducted the New York Philharmonic while also composing musicals, working on the music for ballets, recording television programs that educated the public about music, and performing the most beautiful, intricate, and complicated symphonies. He was the Renaissance Man of American music of the early and mid-20th century.

Leonard Bernstein’s Early Life

Leonard Bernstein’s parents Samuel and Jennie were Ukrainian Jews who emigrated to the United States as children. Leonard’s only exposure to early music was via the family’s radio. When he was 10, his Aunt Clara sent her piano to his house in the middle of her divorce proceedings. When he saw the piano, he told his mother he wanted to take lessons; his father refused to pay for them, as he didn’t want to encourage his son to have a career in music. Leonard started teaching himself piano and music theory instead. In the summers, the family visited their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts, where Leonard convinced all the kids to help him put on shows like Carmen and The Pirates of Penzance. He was playing entire operas and Beethoven symphonies by the time he was a teenager.

Eventually, his father relented and took Leonard to see his first symphony orchestra, the Boston Pops, when he was a teenager.

By this time, Leonard was a prodigy. In 1932, the same year he first saw the Boston Pops, Leonard played the entirety of Brahms’s Rhapsody in G minor at his first public piano performance. In 1934, he had a solo with the Boston Public School Orchestra and played Grig’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

Bernstein enrolled at Harvard University in 1935. He studied music and put together his first original music compositions during his college years. He met conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos as a sophomore and his influence led Leonard to start focusing on becoming a conductor. He graduated from Harvard in 1939 and enrolled in the Curtis Music Institute.

Leonard Bernstein’s Early Career

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When he was done with his education, Leonard Bernstein moved to New York City and supported himself by teaching piano, playing the piano for dance lessons at Carnegie Hall, and coaching singers. He also transcribed jazz and pop music into sheet music to make ends meet. In the spring of 1942, he performed his first published work, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, at Boston’s Institute of Modern Art.

On November 14, 1943, Bernstein got his first big break. He had recently landed the job of assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. When that night’s guest conductor came down with the flu, Bernstein stepped in on short notice and without rehearsing and conducted the premiere American orchestra in a particularly difficult program that featured the work of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Miklos Rozsa, and Robert Schumann.

Over the next several years, Bernstein conducted a number of orchestras on a guest basis, composed some of his early works, and generally built up his resume for his big career breakthrough.

Leonard Bernstein’s Career Highlights

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Leonard Bernstein had such a long, unique, diversified, and successful career that several accomplishments could be called his professional breakthrough. However, aside from his skilled musicianship, one of the biggest moments in Bernstein’s life was when he was named the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1958. At 40 years old, Bernstein was the youngest person ever to hold this position at the time. He held this position until 1969.

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A year before Bernstein was named music director of the New York Philharmonic, one of his compositions made its debut. Without a doubt, his composition of the classic West Side Story remains the crowning glory of Leonard Bernstein’s long and illustrious career. It debuted on Broadway in September 1957 and in the years since it has proven to be a lasting and beloved musical that is still relevant to this day.

The Legacy of Leonard Bernstein Cemented by Bradley Cooper

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Leonard Bernstein remains the Maestro, a nickname given to him later in his career. His style is the definitive sound of American music, creating some of the country’s first compositions to gain international recognition. His musicals and instrumental pieces continue to have life. Bernstein composed music for symphony orchestras, small ensembles, Broadway, film, ballet, and opera. His compositions, at their core, carry messages of hope and understanding that, until recently, were a fairly unique American trait. Leonard Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72. A lifelong smoker, he died of cardiac arrest as a result of lung failure.

It’s still uncertain just how much of Bernstein’s life and career will be explored in Bradley Cooper’s film, but it appears like Cooper will be exploring Bernstein’s homosexuality, as set images show him kissing Matt Bomer in the film (images also show a totally unrecognizable Cooper as an older Bernstein). However he approaches the biopic, it’s obvious that he was an American legend who is well-deserving of a great biography. With Cooper’s track record of music-oriented filmmaking, it seems like Maestro will be great.