To Kill A Mockingbird (Theme)
Elmer Bernstein
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Browse piano sheets by Elmer Bernstein on Zen Virtual Piano. Elmer Bernstein, a composer for film and a pianist, was born in New York City. As a child he performed professionally as a dancer and an actor, playing Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway. He also won several prizes for his painting. At the age of 12 Bernstein was awarded a piano scholarship by Henriette Michelson, a Juilliard teacher. Michelson guided him throughout his entire career as a pianist. Michelson brought him before the composer Aaron Copland to play several of his improvisations. Copland was encouraging, and Israel Citkowitz was the teacher he picked for the young boy. Bernstein's early work as a dancer and actor and his piano scholarship at 12 may hint at a childhood spread across several arts. In 1950 Millard Lampell, an old service buddy, convinced the producer Sidney Buchman to bring Bernstein onto a football movie that Lampell had written. That film, Saturday's Hero, was made for Columbia, which released it in 1951. Bernstein had written music reviews for the Daily Worker in the late 1940s and had been associated with known party members, though he was never a member of the Communist Party. Those Daily Worker reviews and his 1950 hire for a Columbia football film may point to a working life that touched both music journalism and film. Bernstein said that he had six weeks before he wrote a note of any kind for To Kill a Mockingbird. He said the clue came when he realised that the film saw its issues through the eyes of children. Gregory Peck and screenwriter Horton Foote won Oscars for the film in 1962, and Bernstein received a nomination. The story is set in a small town in the depression-ridden South. His music for it was composed for a chamber-sized ensemble rather than a full orchestra. If the piano scholarship at 12 and the 1962 Oscar nomination are read together, the pianist and the film composer may be parts of one musical life. Bernstein earned Tony nominations for best musical score, in 1967 for How Now Dow Jones and in 1983 for Merlin. He received an Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and a Primetime Emmy Award. Toward the end of his life Bernstein returned to his classical roots by composing a guitar concerto for the guitarist Christopher Parkening. Does his childhood role as Caliban on Broadway, set beside the Tony nominations for How Now Dow Jones and Merlin, show Broadway appearing in his life both as a child and as a composer?
Browse piano sheets by Elmer Bernstein on Zen Virtual Piano.
Elmer Bernstein, a composer for film and a pianist, was born in New York City. As a child he performed professionally as a dancer and an actor, playing Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway. He also won several prizes for his painting.
At the age of 12 Bernstein was awarded a piano scholarship by Henriette Michelson, a Juilliard teacher. Michelson guided him throughout his entire career as a pianist. Michelson brought him before the composer Aaron Copland to play several of his improvisations. Copland was encouraging, and Israel Citkowitz was the teacher he picked for the young boy. Bernstein's early work as a dancer and actor and his piano scholarship at 12 may hint at a childhood spread across several arts.
In 1950 Millard Lampell, an old service buddy, convinced the producer Sidney Buchman to bring Bernstein onto a football movie that Lampell had written. That film, Saturday's Hero, was made for Columbia, which released it in 1951. Bernstein had written music reviews for the Daily Worker in the late 1940s and had been associated with known party members, though he was never a member of the Communist Party. Those Daily Worker reviews and his 1950 hire for a Columbia football film may point to a working life that touched both music journalism and film.
Bernstein said that he had six weeks before he wrote a note of any kind for To Kill a Mockingbird. He said the clue came when he realised that the film saw its issues through the eyes of children. Gregory Peck and screenwriter Horton Foote won Oscars for the film in 1962, and Bernstein received a nomination. The story is set in a small town in the depression-ridden South. His music for it was composed for a chamber-sized ensemble rather than a full orchestra. If the piano scholarship at 12 and the 1962 Oscar nomination are read together, the pianist and the film composer may be parts of one musical life.
Bernstein earned Tony nominations for best musical score, in 1967 for How Now Dow Jones and in 1983 for Merlin. He received an Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and a Primetime Emmy Award. Toward the end of his life Bernstein returned to his classical roots by composing a guitar concerto for the guitarist Christopher Parkening. Does his childhood role as Caliban on Broadway, set beside the Tony nominations for How Now Dow Jones and Merlin, show Broadway appearing in his life both as a child and as a composer?
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Common questions
Elmer Bernstein was born in New York City. In childhood he worked professionally on stage as an actor, playing Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway, and as a dancer, and his painting won several prizes.
Henriette Michelson, a Juilliard teacher, awarded Elmer Bernstein a piano scholarship when he was 12. She guided him as a pianist through his entire career, and she also took him to play improvisations for Aaron Copland.
Elmer Bernstein said he had six weeks before writing a note of any kind for the film. He said the clue came when he realised the film saw its issues through the eyes of children, and he composed the music for a chamber-sized ensemble.
Elmer Bernstein received an Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and a Primetime Emmy Award. He also earned Tony nominations for How Now Dow Jones in 1967 and Merlin in 1983, and a nomination for To Kill a Mockingbird.