Performance Today®

In so many ways, Leonard Bernstein was extraordinary. Talented, charismatic and handsome to boot, it was if a magic wand tapped his head at birth. His daughter Jamie Bernstein in her new book Famous Father Girl describes what the public didn't see: the doubt and guilt that nagged his conscience AND fueled his music.

We’re visiting Music From Angel Fire! Keep following for more as we go.

Fred Child signs off after attending the opening weekend of Music From Angel Fire on Performance Today.

In 1966, Orin O'Brien was the first woman to join the New York Philharmonic. She was hired by Leonard Bernstein. Orin O'Brien reflects back on a mentor and musical icon, Leonard Bernstein, on Monday's Performance Today. Garrett McQueen guest hosts.

Orin O'Brien was the first woman hired to perform full-time with the New York Philharmonic. Watching Leonard Bernstein conduct was certainly exciting for the audience, but this double bassist says it was exhilarating and terrifying to face the conductor as a member of his orchestra. O'Brien calls working with Bernstein "one of the best experiences of my professional life."

Tania Leon is a composer, conductor and a Distinguished Professor of Music at the City University of New York. On this weekend's Performance Today, Tania Leon tells us about meeting Leonard Bernstein, that "...(it) was like meeting a mythological figure."

In 2013, Pianist and composer Tatev Amiryan wrote an engaging work for solo piano, inspired by Armenian folk music. On Friday's Performance Today, hear Amiryan perform her composition, Ortus, from a concert in Kansas City. Garrett McQueen guests hosts.

Growing up, Jamie Bernstein says her father was relentlessly competitive and preternaturally good at everything. Well, almost everything. In this interview highlight, she describes the glee she and her siblings felt when they found one thing their father wasn't good at. Jamie Bernstein's new memoir is called Famous Father Girl.

It sounds like the set-up for a great punch line. Three composers walk into a restaurant: Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Michael Tilson Thomas. The first course is challenging musical trivia. The next course involves clanging spoons and glasses. Michael Tilson Thomas describes a memorable dinner with two other American composers.