The Real History Behind Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre’s Marriage in ‘Maestro’

Smithsonian Magazine
November 22, 2023

The Bradley Cooper-led film is a dramatization of the storied composer and conductor’s complex love life

On her 25th birthday in February 1947, Felicia Montealegre sent a giddy letter to her new fiancé.

“Lenny, my darling, my darling!” she wrote. “I am a quarter of a century old, a very frightening fact!” Recent developments, she went on, included the arrival of a black cocker spaniel puppy (“She’s mine, my very own!”) and an impending driver’s license exam (“I drive alone all over the place, up hill and down dale, heavy traffic and all—and I’m great! So there!!”).

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein’s daughters on the biopic Maestro: ‘Take it from us, it is uncanny’

Financial Times
November 15, 2023

What do the following have in common — Judy Garland, Margaret Thatcher, Freddie Mercury and Stephen Hawking? Answer: they are just some of the real-life figures played by actors who have gone on to win Oscars. This is a well-trodden path to the red carpet of the Academy Awards.

One essential element is a subject with a high level of charisma, and nobody offered more of that than American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.

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Alta Tseng
Lenny’s Offspring Like the Nose

The New Yorker
November 13, 2023

Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein compare notes on “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper’s film about their dad.

The three children of Leonard Bernstein uphold their father’s legacy with waggish exuberance. In September, at the Venice première of “Maestro,” a new film depicting Bernstein’s fraught but loving relationship with their mother, the actress Felicia Montealegre, they gleefully air-conducted along to the end credits, in the irrepressible manner of their father. While the actors’ strike sidelined Bradley Cooper—the film’s director, co-writer, and star—the Bernsteins subbed in as the film’s unofficial mascots. They like to call themselves “the three-headed monster.”

“A former boyfriend of mine coined it,” Jamie, the eldest, said. “Because of all the noise and the carrying on and jokes.” Jamie (blond bob, voice like an oboe) is the memoirist—in 2018, she published “Famous Father Girl”—and the mouthpiece (“I’m a yakker”).

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Alta Tseng
Bradley Cooper on "Maestro"

Sunday Morning - CBS NEWS
November 12, 2023

This past Thursday, Nina Bernstein Simmons, Alexander Bernstein and Jamie Bernstein gathered at their family's Connecticut home to talk about "Maestro," the movie that Bradley Cooper has made about their late parents. Much of the movie was filmed in this house, where the children share cherished memories of their father, the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, and their mother, actress Felicia Montealegre.

Rocca asked, "How much time do you all spend in the house now?"

"Every chance we get," said Jamie. "Weekends and lots of summer-time. It's heaven here."

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein's Daughter on 'Surreal' Experience Seeing Maestro Film About Her Family: 'What a Ride'

People
October 6, 2023

Leonard Bernstein's daughter Jamie and her siblings had a "surreal" experience seeing their family's life portrayed on the big screen.

At a press conference Tuesday attended by PEOPLE, Jamie, 71, reacted to seeing Maestro at its New York Film Festival premiere inside David Geffen Hall, where her late musician father conducted many times before.

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein's children on 'Maestro': "We literally opened our doors"

Far Out Magazine
October 4, 2023

The children of the famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein have admitted that they were blown away after first seeing Bradley Cooper play their father in the new movie Maestro, which Cooper also directed.

When they appeared at the American premiere of the film, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina discussed their impressions, with Jamie telling Variety, “It took our breath away; it made us gasp. In some pictures, we could tell a little bit that it was Bradley.” 

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Alta Tseng
‘Maestro’ Spotlight Gala Premiere at New York Film Festival: Jamie Bernstein and production crew sing praises of Bradley Cooper

Yahoo! Entertainment
October 3, 2023

“This whole project began a good 15 years ago,” explained Jamie Bernstein, daughter of famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, at the New York Film Festival’s Spotlight Gala Premiere of “Maestro” at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center. “The evolution of this film has been so intricate and profound, and so many things happened along the way, and so many new people arrived along the way — most significantly Bradley Cooper, who came into the picture about five or six years ago and changed everything.”

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Alta Tseng
Leonard Bernstein’s Children Gave Bradley Cooper Their Father’s Bathrobe for ‘Maestro,’ Let Him Film in Family Home: ‘We Literally Opened Our Doors’

Variety
October 2, 2023

Leonard Bernstein‘s children Jamie, Alexander and Nina were in complete awe the first time they saw Bradley Cooper as the renowned conductor and composer. “It took our breath away, it made us gasp,” Jamie Bernstein told Variety at the North American premiere of “Maestro” at the New York Film Festival. “In some pictures, we could tell a little bit that it was Bradley, but there were certain photographs where we would go, ‘Oh my God!’ It was so amazingly perfect.”

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Alta Tseng
Equal parts fun and crazy: A behind-the-scenes look at creating The Village Trip 2023

The Village Sun
September 19, 2023

People often ask us, “When do you start planning next year’s Village Trip?” We usually reply, “The day after the current festival closes.” But this year, the answer is a little different, since we actually got things going on the first day of TVT22. That’s when we met David Milch and Nancy Notaro, who live in the East Village and happened to attend our opening day block party on Eighth Street.

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Alta Tseng
A History of the NY Phil, America's Oldest Symphony Orchestra

WNYC - All Of It
April 10, 2023

The New York Philharmonic has been performing for over 180 years and is America's oldest operating orchestra. A new podcast from WQXR, The NY Phil Story: Made in New York, launched last week. The podcast dives into the history of the orchestra and the people who have played in it. Host Jamie Bernstein joins us to discuss the history of the NY Phil and take your calls.

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Alta Tseng
The NY Phil Story: A New History Podcast Series from WQXR

The Bowery Boys
April 7, 2023

For more than 180 years, the New York Philharmonic has been making history here in the city we call home. The NY Phil Story: Made in New York is a podcast about the people, the music, and the city behind America’s oldest orchestra. Host Jamie Bernstein (the daughter of Leonard Bernstein) takes you backstage and into the archives to hear the untold stories of the Philharmonic–right from the very beginning.

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Alta Tseng
Introducing "The NY Phil Story: Made in New York"

NPR
March 27, 2023

The NY Phil Story: Made in New York is a podcast about the people, the music, and the city behind America's oldest orchestra. Host Jamie Bernstein takes you backstage and into the archives to hear the untold stories of the Philharmonic — right from the very beginning.

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Alta Tseng
Inside an insomniac's brain

Pasatiempo
Phillip Lutz | For The New Mexican, March 3, 2023

Speaking by video conference from the unpretentious apartment she has long occupied in New York City, Jamie, who at 70 is just two years shy of her father’s age at his death in 1990, is a highly engaging figure in her own right — theatrical in her manner, perceptive in her analysis, and precise in her descriptions of her father’s nocturnal activities.

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Alta Tseng
The New York Philharmonic Gala Returns to David Geffen Hall to Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit

Vogue
By Eliseé Browchu, February 3, 2023

After the long-awaited and highly anticipated renovation of the New York Philharmonic’s home, David Geffen Hall opened its doors just in time for the Lunar New Year gala. Co-chaired by Angela Chen, Misook Doolittle, Oscar L. Tang, and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang, the evening welcomed the year of the Rabbit in style. Dressed in festive attire and gorgeous gowns, guests gathered in the Leon and Norma Hess Grand Promenade for a private pre-show cocktail hour. 

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Alta Tseng