Some things never go out of style. Great music, it is said, is always great, no matter how much time passes.
So it is not surprising, 100 years after his birth, that people are still performing the music of Leonard Bernstein, a composer, conductor, pianist.
On Saturday, East Lansing favorite and soprano Morgan James and conductor Teddy Abrams will be bringing their Bernstein show, The Best of Bernstein’s Broadway, to Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall.
Bernstein was born in 1918 to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and became one of the first American-born and trained conductors to perform with prestigious symphonies such as the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony. He was also a composer who created 32 orchestral works, 11 theater works, one film score, 16 songs and song cycles, eight choral and keyboard works, and nine piano works.
While the show features James vocal stylings and hauntingly beautiful voice, she is backed by a full 68-piece orchestra, an orchestra put together by MSU College of Music Professor Richard Sherman. He said this is the biggest show he’s had to contract in his history of recruiting and hiring instrumentalists for Wharton Center touring shows.
“In the 15 years I’ve been doing it, I’ve never had a show of this magnitude where I’ve had to hire this big of a group. This is a full symphony,” said Sherman.
James describes the show as deceptively difficult, not an average pops program, which adds to Sherman’s challenge in finding the right musicians who are as geographically close as possible.
Putting up out-of-town musicians gets expensive for the show and Sherman said there are plenty of talented Greater Lansing and Michigan musicians, so he tries to favor local musicians.
James, who does a lot of original and cover work as a soloist, said that Bernstein has been an important part of her musical journey, that she’s done many unique and interesting projects that have involved Bernstein, which made this show a natural for her and her long-time collaborator Abrams to put together.
One such project is that she’s done five different productions of Bernstein’s “Mass” since 2008, starting in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. It’s one of Bernstein’s lesser-known pieces, a musical commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy that was first performed in 1971.
She’ll be performing “Simple Song” from Mass.
She said they tried to put together a mix of popular music and some of his lesser known, more challenging pieces. They also spend time talking about Bernstein and what he did for the American musical landscape.
After taking the show on the road, they’ve been able to refine it into something that has met receptive audiences.
James is also thrilled to be returning to East Lansing where she said Wharton’s executive director, Mike Brand, has helped her develop a local fan base.