Leonard Bernstein

Composer, pianist, author, television teacher, Harvard lecturer, cultural icon, humanist and conductor without peer, Leonard Bernstein's versatility was legendary. He captivated Broadway with such hits as On the Town and West Side Story and introduced middle America to classical music with his Young People's Concerts on television. He composed three symphonies and a full-length opera, and he inspired the world's leading orchestras to give some of the most memorable performances of the twentieth century. Humphrey Burton was given exclusive access to Bernstein's rich legacy of letters and papers, and the book draws on hundreds of interviews with family, friends and colleagues to reveal Bernstein's fascinating and complex personality. His compelling narrative captures Bernstein's high-spirited vitality on the page, providing a frank account of his homosexuality and his marriage and chronicling the lifelong conflict between the rival claims of Bernstein's conducting and composing careers. 'Humphrey Burton has written a very detailed and candid account of his friend ... The mass of material is superbly handled ... [Bernstein] was a musical genius and he deserves this measured and meticulous biography.' Sunday Telegraph

Born in 1931, Humphrey Burton, CBE, was educated at Long Dene, a co-educational progressive school, and the Judd School, Tonbridge. After military service in the Royal Signals he read music and history at Cambridge and spent a year in France researching eighteenth-century musical life before joining the BBC in 1955 as a studio manager. He was recruited to the ground-breaking TV arts magazine Monitor three years later, rising to become the first head of the BBC's music and arts department and winning the British Academy's top award for creative programme-making. This was the first of many UK and international honours for such programmes as The Golden Ring and The Making of West Side Story. Between 1967 and 1975 Burton was a founder member of London Weekend Television, editing and hosting ITV's popular arts series Aquarius. After a second spell as a BBC boss, he retired from management at the age of fifty and has since concentrated on direction, broadcasting, writing and impresario duties at the Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood and the Barbican Centre. In recent years he has branched out as a worldwide cruise director and lecturer on musical subjects. Burton worked with Yehudi Menuhin on many radio and television programmes, including a twenty-part biography for Classic FM entitled Menuhin: Master Musician - of which a revised version is to be broadcast in 2016. He was also a frequent collaborator of Leonard Bernstein, producing a dozen documentaries and directing close on two hundred filmed concerts: his widely-praised Bernstein biography is also published by Faber., Humphrey Burton read Music and History at Cambridge University and entered the BBC as a sound studio manager in 1955. In 1958 he joined the ground-breaking TV arts magazine, 'Monitor'. He has won many international awards, including three from the British Academy, four Emmies and the Italia Prize (for The Making of West Side Story). Twice in charge of Music and Arts for BBC Television, Burton was also a founder member of London Weekend Television, where he edited and presented the ITV arts series 'Aquarius'. He is still active in the fields of radio and television. To celebrate his seventieth birthday in March 2001 he conducted a charity gala performance of Verdi's 'Requiem' at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of prostate cancer. Burton worked with Yehudi Menuhin on many radio and television programmes, including a 20-part radio series for Classic FM. He was also a frequent collaborator with Leonard Bernstein, and later wrote his biography, also published by Faber. He was awarded a CBE in the Millennium honours.