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In my book Lenny & Me: On Conducting Bernstein’s Symphonies, I follow the musicologist Norman Del Mar's dictum that interpretation varies from conductor to conductor, but that writing down a roadmap might "provide a starting point for some budding conductor approaching one of these works for the first time."  

One caveat, and perhaps similar to others who were lucky to also study with Bernstein, is that I have conducted all his orchestral works. This masterclass experience offers a unique perspective. Being considered a “Bernsteinian" is, for me, as great a compliment as when having also been called a “Mahlerian.” Let us not forget that it was Bernstein's own Mahler cycle that now gives credibility to the term Mahlerian. Before that, Mahler's was a name recognized only to the privileged few. And like Mahler, Bernstein gives many indications to conductors in his works, while allowing the freedom to interpret, or "recompose," as Lenny would himself say. 

Del Mar's seminal book, Conducting Beethoven, and the others that followed on Brahms, Berlioz and other concert works, differentiate between the good and the great, between the core repertoire and the secondary. With my book and this masterclass on Bernstein's Symphonies, I hopeto put Bernstein in that same league of greatness where I believe he belongs.

Why? Because Lenny's music is unique, as was the man. While there are many examples of composer's lives being as splendiferous as his (or her) music, few have lived the life of Bernstein, in performance, composition, influence or education. Nor composed in such a variety of musical forms. Nor developed a voice that was absolutely American, nostalgic of New York, permeating with personality and fabulously flamboyant in opera, musical theater, concerti, vocal works, choral works, symphonies, overtures, film scores, and so on. Bernstein may have been good at everything, but he would have said he was best at writing for the theater, and all his works are, in some way, theatrical. Bernstein was the polyglot who absorbed notes, themes, ideas, languages, sounds, styles, philosophies, palindromes, images and words and combined them all together into a sonic soundscape of thick harmonies, light pastiche and soaring melodies that can be considered imitative at times and innovative at most others.

Bernstein might have done more with words for audience development than any other conductor because he was the first who spoke directly to his public, both in the concert hall and on television. Perhaps that is the best way to describe his music as well. It speaks directly to the listener. It is impossible not to move your head in rhythm when listening to the Mambo from West Side Story. It is impossible to not consider one's own love story when listening to the Serenade. It is impossible not to laugh during the Turkey Trot in the Divertimento. It is impossible to not reflect on humanity when listening to his Kaddish.

Lenny may not have believed he would be the subject of such a masterclass. He believed he was a more famous conductor than composer, and feared only being remembered for West Side Story. His identification with Mahler, as a misunderstood composer, and also a Jewish conductor, was logical. And yet, despite the hundreds of books about Bernstein, according to the Bernstein family, there has never been a book about conducting his music. It was the conductor, Lenny, from whom I learned. And so it is conducting Lenny that inspires me to share. But what also encouraged me to write this book is not only the quality and integrity of his great music, and the indelible

imprint of his personality, but also to remind the reader and the conductor of what we lost when Bernstein died: The permission to be good at everything. So he was. And so too can we be.

Thus, Lenny and Me: On Conducting Bernstein, is a detailed description of

conducting (and hearing) the varied orchestral compositions which are, I believe, good. To not give Bernstein my invested, authorial time would be to deny the teacher who gave so much of his to me. What I suggest from a conductor's perspective is always with Lenny the conductor/composer in mind. And to not make the effort to give Lenny his rightful place in the pantheon of great composers is to forget that he was a mirror to our own desperate efforts to be good. To be just. To be loved. The 20th century was all things to all people. Anxious yet enthusiastic. Traditional but innovative. Destructive yet fertile. Lenny found these themes in his music. He proudly put them on display on TV, on tours, in opera, in concerts. in books and in lectures. Lenny was a man of his time and for all time. As is his music.

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Space is limited to 100 for each.  First come first served.  No age limit.  No gender requirement.  Just be a conductor.

More Masterclasses can be scheduled based on demand. 

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According to the conductor Talia Ilan who posted her list on social media which was picked up by Slippedisc, as of August 27, 2023, there are 1000+ women conductors actively making music, from youth orchestra level to the major symphonic and opera organisations. 

That is an impressive number.  

"Historically speaking, it's a man on the podium leading an orchestra," said Lisa Bury, The Dallas Opera's chief advancement and strategy officer. "There have been women, and very successful women, but the vast majority have been male, and in an era, i.e. the 21st century, it's time as an industry to collectively improve the ratio and work together to achieve gender parity at the podium."  

With the support of The Dallas Opera Hart Institute and La Maestra Paris competition and many more organisations, foundations and media, women conductors have recently become played a more dominant role, becoming the focus of funding, political support and orchestra programming. Maestra JoAnn Falletta is not only among them, but one of the leading trailblazers who demonstrated that musical interpretation and leadership do not necessarily separate gender. Her over 40 year experience as a professional conductor has paved the way for a new generation of women conductors to bravely go where few women have gone before. Quality is the key to musical excellence. To attain quality, and to support equality, access, education and experience are the necessary paths to become a professional conductor.  

JoAnn Falletta recognises that. Falletta is a strong advocate and mentor for young professional and student musicians. She has led seminars for women conductors for the League of American Orchestras and established a unique collaboration between the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Mannes College of Music to give up-and-coming conductors professional experience with a leading American orchestra. In 2018, she served on the jury of the Malko Competition in Denmark. She has had great success working with young musicians, guest conducting orchestras at top conservatories and summer programs such as the National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, Interlochen, and Brevard Music Center, and as Artistic Advisor at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

To contribute to this effort to provide access and education, Maestra JoAnn Falletta will join the CMO Great Maestro Roster on 

January 17, 2024 at 12 noon EST

Offering all women conductors and CMO subscribers a FREE Online Masterclass on the music of Ottorino Respighi, in particular, the Fountains and Pines of Rome from his Roman Trilogy. These orchestral masterpieces are on her award winning Naxos recording.  

Respighi’s Pines of Rome is beloved by all audiences and in the repertoire of all conductors and orchestras. 

As Maestra Falletta says: 

“Respighi's Roman Trilogy is one of the most beloved- and orchestrally stunning- works in the literature.  Meticulously painted, the Pines and Fountains are pieces that will be in every conductor's repertoire, and a close-up look at these works will reveal Respighi's compositional imagination and architectural genius.”

Space is limited to 100.  First come first served.  No age limit.  CMO welcomes "He, She, They".  CMO is non-discriminatory.

 Just be a good conductor.

More Masterclasses can be scheduled based on demand. 

Sign up today for your Masterclass and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

photo by Mark Dellas

Giacomo Puccini, whom we will commemorate in 2024 on the occasion of the centenary of his death, is one of the last jewels of traditional Italian opera. His works have graced all the stages of the world and have moved all generations of music lovers. His seemingly simple and moving language make Manon, Mimì, Tosca or Butterfly unforgettable, who, with their song, reveal humanity to itself. 

Maestro Frédéric Chaslin is a an opera specialist. He has conducted New York Metropolitan (since 2002), Los Angeles Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper, Munich Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as Leipzig, Dresden, Madrid, Bologna, Roma, Venice, Torino, Tokyo, Oslo, Copenhagen.

Frédéric Chaslin made his Austrian debuts in 1993 at the Bregenzer Festspiele for Nabucco (93, 94) and Fidelio (95, 96). Since 1997, he is a regular guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera where he conducted nearly 250 performances of 34 different tittles, as well as concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic as a conductor and as a pianist.

Major recent appearences were two new productions of Tales of Hoffman in Dresden, Venice and Copenhagen. 

He is indeed a most diverse Maestro. In the symphonic repertoire, he’s conducted all major french orchestras (Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra National, Radio-France Philharmonic, Paris Opera Orchestra), the Milan Scala Philharmonic, Torino Rai, Manchester Hallé, London Philharmonia, London Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Spain National Orchestra, Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra (Lisbon), Israel Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic.

In summer 2022, Frédéric Chaslin made his debut in a staged production at  the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he led Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Opera engagements in the 2022/23 season include his return to La Scala with a new staging of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Don Pasquale at the Wiener Staatsoper, Lakmé at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Tosca at the Tokyo Spring Festival, and Samson et Dalila at the Bucharest National Opera, while on the concert platform he appears in cities such as Paris, Brussels, Marseille, Lisbon, Trieste and Bolzano.  

Rediscover Puccini with Maestro Chaslin.  On the day La Bohème was premiered in 1896 in Torino.  Uncover the secrets to conducting, interpreting, rehearsing, and even enjoying what for many are the most beautiful works for the opera stage. 

300USD or equivalent currency per conductor

Space is limited to 100 for each.  First come first served.  No age limit.  No gender requirement.  Just be a conductor.

More Masterclasses can be scheduled based on demand. 

Sign up today for your Masterclass and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.