Bernstein: Duty and Career

By the early 1940s, Leonard Bernstein’s star was swiftly on the rise. Unfortunately, World War II was also escalating. Like many young men who hadn’t already been drafted, Bernstein faced a moral dilemma: In serving his country, he might derail his career.

At the time, Bernstein had concluded his formal education and was excelling at Tanglewood in the summers. He had just debuted with the Boston Pops, his first appearance with a professional orchestra. Now, he faced the possibility of spending years away from his craft. While the choice was clear–duty over personal interest–young Bernstein understandably grappled with the fear of missing his chance at success. Would he have a career to return to?

Initially, Bernstein sought counsel in his mentor Serge Koussevitzky. He wrote to him, asking about the U.S.O. and if applying for service there might be a way to combine the two paths.

 

 

Koussevitzky asked the opinion of his friend and Tanglewood supporter Mary Louise Curtis Bok knowing that students at the Curtis Institute were also facing an uncertain future. Curtis was losing many students to the war effort. Between 1940 and 1943, enrollment had dropped from 210 to just 100 musicians, the lowest in the school’s history. It was Koussevitzky’s hope that Mrs. Bok could somehow help safeguard this promising Curtis alumnus.

 

 

Mrs. Bok contacted David Williams, the chairman of the Philadelphia region’s U.S.O., on Bernstein’s behalf. Her reply to Koussevitzky stated that, while it was worth asking the question, it was doubtful that working for the U.S.O. would be considered by the government as a replacement for military enlistment. She concluded her letter with thoughts of Curtis’s current students, stating that while Curtis did not as a rule request military deferments or exemptions for enrolled students, this policy resulted in “frequent heartaches all around this matter.”

As fate would have it, when Bernstein reported for his medical examination the doctor disqualified him from service due to chronic asthma. In the years to come, Bernstein would apply his own methods, musical in nature, to promote social and political justice and to honor his Jewish heritage. His next work, a symphony, was completed in 1942 and was titled after the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. Bernstein described it as offering consolation to the “crisis of our century...It is the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it.”

 

 

A photo of the significantly smaller 1943 graduating class.  Three students, Sidney Sharp, Paul Shure, and Thomas Perkins, pose in uniform. All returned from the war.)

—Barbara Benedett, digital archivist, Curtis Archives
For more information on Curtis history, visit the Curtis Archives.

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