Leonard Bernstein

"Eleven. Exactly. One louder." - Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap


Leonard Bernstein has inspired so many to follow their dreams and go into music. Here are 11 things that inspire me.

1. West Side Story -- the whole musical and for songs like: "I Have A Love" -- the melody throughout and this line: "I have a love, and it's all that I have. Right or wrong, what else can I do? " (youtube) 
2. West Side Story "One Hand, One Heart" (youtube)
3. Candide "Glitter and Be Gay" This is just so funny and brilliantly written (youtube - Kristin Chenoweth is amazing) as well as "THe Best of all Possible Worlds" and "Make Our Garden Grow", not to mention the Overture.
4. On the Town - capturing America after the war, in that nostalgic era
5. Lenny's ability to compose music for ballet -- things like Fancy Free and so many others
6. His Mass to open the Kennedy Center for the Arts, while dated, does pose great questions and challenge all that is sacred.
7. His passion for education, through his Young Persons' Concerts and his book "The Joy of Music". 1984 Garfield Cadets interpretation of WSS would be another example of inspiration
8. His skill to conduct a wide range of compositions
9. For being an American melting pot icon. Stan Kenton's arrangement of "America" is a fun representation of how diverse Bernstein's music can be and refreshed 
10. "Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
11. "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."

Aaron Copland

"Eleven. Exactly. One louder." - Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap


Aaron Copland, American composer, has always inspired me. Here are 11 tunes I enjoy.

1. Appalachian Spring. Essentially American. Open, expansive, diverse, with roots in the Shaker hymn. A wonderful ballet too.
2. Rodeo. Fun. Again, capturing a taste of Americana
3. Danzon Cubano (YouTube Clip). 
4. Fanfare for the Common Man. Stately. Hard to believe this will be 70 years old next year.
5. El Salon Mexico. So colorful 
6. Billy the Kid. Intense
7. The Tender Land. Brilliant and complex
8. Quiet City (YouTube Clip) So delicate
9. The Red Pony Classic Copland
10. Third Symphony Tasteful weave of European form with American themes and ideas
11. Our Town Strong movie and his music adds to the drama.

Victor Ewald

"Eleven. Exactly. One louder." - Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap


The little I know about Victor Ewald inspires me. Here are eleven things

1. Working musician 
2. Russian -- authentically expressing his roots
3. Integration of folk melodies into his composition
4. Lyrical melodies in his compositions
5. Promoted the work of others -- through the ‘Friday Evenings’ - weekly soirées
6. The longing and passion heard in the opening phrase of Quintet #3 - Movement II (sample from youTube)
7. The melancholy in the melody, followed by the exhilaration of the 5/4 section  of the Quintet #1 - Movement II (sample from youTube). You can just feel the Russian winter followed by Spring.
8. The opening line of the Tuba in Quintet #1 - Movement 1. (sample from youTube).
9. The final 40 seconds or so of Quintet #1 - Movement 1. So romantic and passionate (sample from youTube). 
10. Beautifully crafted trumpet filigree through all his compositions. Quintet #2 shows it off (sample from youTube).
11. Lush french horn and tenor horn lines, perhaps a connection to his cello roots.