Happy Wild Koala Day! 🐨 #WildKoalaDay is a day to celebrate wild koalas and protect their habitats.

[📸Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, Australia, 1974, courtesy of NYPhilDigitalArchive]

Happy International Jazz Day! 🎷🎶🎺

'Jazz is the ultimate common denominator of the American musical style.'
–Leonard Bernstein

[📸 by Don Hunstein, Leonard Bernstein and members of the @nyphilharmonic on stage in Moscow, 1959; Courtesy of Sony Classical.]

Today we celebrate Duke Ellington, born #otd in 1899!

In 1966, Ellington and Leonard Bernstein met in Wisconsin and discussed a variety of music-related topics including cultural centers, classical/jazz audiences, and composing music.
youtu.be/Eb-2xSiuG2g

Happy #InternationalDanceDay !

“The one thing about Lenny’s music which was so tremendously important was that there always was a kinetic motor-there was a power in the rhythms of his work...which had a need for it to be demonstrated by dance.”
-Jerome Robbins

'I don’t know any great musician who has not had the experience of wondering whether he shouldn’t have been doing something else, and then saying, ‘Of course not.’
It’s like love...What you are interested in is the well-being of the object you love.'
-Leonard Bernstein, 1981

On April 27, 1967, Leonard Bernstein conducted the @NYPhil in the world premiere of Lukas Foss's 'Phorion.'

Enjoy this 1967 Sony Classical recording of Lukas Foss's 'Phorion,' by the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein.

youtu.be/xjad33Iah-s

Ravel's 'Tzigane' was premiered 100 years ago today (April 26, 1924) in London!

Enjoy this 1975 video of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Orchestre National de France in an excerpt from Ravel's 'Tzigane,' featuring violinist Boris Belkin.
youtu.be/IJaDN4GXius

Today, we celebrate the First Lady of Song, the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, born on this day in 1917!

[📸Leonard Bernstein and Ella Fitzgerald at the Presidential Inauguration Gala for JFK, January 19, 1961. Courtesy of The Library of Congress Music Division.]

#OTD in 1950, the musical 'Peter Pan', with music & lyrics by Leonard Bernstein, opened at the Imperial Theater in NYC.

Enjoy Linda Eder singing 'Who am I?' from a 2005 studio cast recording of Bernstein's 'Peter Pan' conducted by Alexander Frey.
youtu.be/4DJIhooqm9k

Today is #WorldBookDay !

We encourage you to read these books by Leonard Bernstein:

📕The Joy of Music, 1959
📗The Infinite Variety of Music, 1966
📘Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, 1970
📙The Unanswered Question: Six Talks At Harvard, 1976
📕Findings, 1982

Today marks the anniversary of the premiere (April 21, 1988) of Leonard Bernstein's last complete choral work, 'Missa Brevis.' The work was premiered by the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, conducted by Robert Shaw, to whom the work is dedicated.

youtu.be/Acl9H8oiaUI

'And what have teachers got to do with music? The answer is: everything. . . The trouble is that we don't always realize how important teachers are, in music or in anything else.'
Leonard Bernstein, 1961
Young People's Concert: A Tribute to Teachers
[📸 Roger Englander]

#OTD in 1944 (80 yrs ago), “Fancy Free,” the first collaboration between Leonard Bernstein & Jerome Robbins (both 25 yrs old), had its premiere in NYC.

Commissioned by AmericanBalletTheatre, “Fancy Free” featured Robbins as one of the three sailors and was conducted by Bernstein, himself.

Happy #WorldVoiceDay ! 🎤

'I would give anything to be able to express myself musically with my voice.' -Leonard Bernstein, 1945.

[📸 Ruth Orkin Photo]

'When I get in my composing period, it takes at least two, if not three weeks to get everyone else's notes [of the composers I've been conducting] out of my head -- Stravinsky's, Brahms', Mozart's.'
-Leonard Bernstein, 1964
[📸Key Heyman]

Today, on National Dolphin Day, we celebrate one of the most intelligent and friendly mammals in the world! 📷
#NationalDolphinDay

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743.

We invite you to listen to the London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices, and Thomas Hampson perform the President Jefferson Sunday Luncheon March, originally composed originally for '1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'.

youtu.be/MTCLBwowA1w

Movement II of Leonard Bernstein's MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET takes 'a calmer approach that emits much emotion from the eloquent delivery,' said Take Effect. Read their full review of the world premiere recording here.
takeeffectreviews.com/march-2024-3/2…

On the anniversary of her birth, we remember the great Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018).🎉

Today we celebrate Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, born on this day in 1916.

In 1963, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere of Ginastera's Violin Concerto.

[📸 Leonard Bernstein and Alberto Ginastera, May 28, 1958, NYPhilDigitalArchive.]