Bernstein’s Workroom

Leonard Bernstein’s children have donated the contents of his main composing studio to Indiana University.  

The contents include “Bernstein’s stand-up composing table; a conducting stool that may have been used by Brahms, given as a gift by the Vienna Philharmonic; an electric pencil sharpener; a telephone; an ashtray and disposable lighters; Grammy-nomination plaques; and a piece of the Berlin Wall. (Bernstein conducted an international orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony near site of the wall shortly after it was taken down.)

Daniel Wakin, “Bernstein’s Workroom Will Head to Indiana”, The New York Times, 8 March 2009.

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