Display focuses on Bernstein as an inspiration

PHILADELPHIA — In October 1979, Leonard Bernstein received a fan letter from a high school humanities teacher. Helen Morgan wrote to the composerconductor-pianist hoping he could share the theme that guided his compositions — something she could pass along to her students for inspiration.

“There are far more than one ‘central theme’ within my body of works,” Bernstein wrote in reply. “But if I had to choose one, perhaps the most significant, it would be our search for a solution to the 20th-century crisis of faith.”

Bernstein’s lifelong effort to find that solution through music is on moving, and sometimes surprising, display at Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History in its new exhibition, Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music.

Bernstein thrilled millions around the world with his compositions, his theatrical works such as West Side Story and his over-the-top conducting style before his death in 1990 at age 72. But the exhibition focuses on a lesser-known side of Bernstein — the secondgeneration American Jew who inspired social progress on and off the stage.

“He lived through very tumultuous times: the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Cold War and the Vietnam era,” said curator Ivy Weingram. “It was a time of great social upheaval, all of which would challenge the many facets of his identity.”

Items on display include Bernstein’s piano, conducting suit and baton. The exhibition runs until Sept. 2.