American composer, conductor, broadcaster ad teacher Leonard Bernstein was BOTD in 1918. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Ukrainian immigrant parents, he taught himself the piano and battled with his father to become a musician. He studied music theory at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music, before honing his skills as a conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center. In 1943, he was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, becoming an overnight star after substituting last-minute at a concert when the lead conductor became unwell. Combining technical mastery with creative flair and personal charisma, he quickly became a concert hall star, leading the New York Philharmonic orchestra for over a decade and generating a significant legacy of recordings. As America’s first celebrity conductor, he frequently toured and guest-conducted with orchestras in Europe, the Soviet Union and Japan. Moving effortlessly between the classical world and popular culture, he wrote the musicals On the Town, Wonderful Town and Candide, before reaching global celebrity as the composer of West Side Story, written in collaboration with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. Its original 1957 Broadway production was a critical and commercial juggernaut, followed by a phenomenally successful 1961 film, which won ten Oscars including Best Picture. His jazz-infused score for the 1954 film On the Waterfront was also highly praised, earning him an Oscar nomination. In the 1960s, he utilised the medium of television to host the Young People’s Concerts, explaining classical music to millions of viewers. He had a decades-long association with the Tanglewood Music Festival, returning to teach conducting masterclasses and mentoring young musicians. In 1971, he premiered his Mass for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. An impeccable old-school liberal, he supported various civil rights causes, protesting the Vietnam War, hosting parties for the Black Panthers and, in later life, raising money for HIV/AIDS research. Bernstein married Felicia Montealegre in 1951, with whom he had three children. They had an open marriage, in which Bernstein pursued a number of affairs with men, including fellow composers Ned Rorem and Kunihiko Hashimoto. In 1978, Bernstein left Montealegre to live with his boyfriend Tom Cothran, but returned to nurse her through terminal cancer. After her death, he became progressively gayer and messier, pursuing relationships with a number of his conducting students. In 1989, he conducted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. He died in 1990, aged 72. Now considered a titan of 20th century music, he was portrayed by Bradley Cooper in the 2023 biopic Maestro.