LEGENDARY conductor Leonard Bernstein had three children with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.
Here’s everything to know about each of them.
Who are Leonard Bernstein’s kids?
Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre welcomed three kids throughout their marriage.
They had two daughters, Jamie and Nina, and a son, Alexander.
Jamie is the eldest, born in 1952, followed by Alexander, born in 1955. The youngest, Nina, was born in 1962.
All three signed off on Maestro, the biopic about Leonard Bernstein’s life starring Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan.
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While they were not deeply involved in the making of the film, they had nothing but nice words to say about how their father’s story had been told.
“It would be absolutely on the right track as far as I was concerned,” Alexander noted, per Everything Zoomer.
“It was wonderful that he decided to make it about the marriage and not a strict biopic. It was such a beautiful idea.”
Like Leonard, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina have been embroiled in the arts sector.
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Jamie has worked as a concert narrator for The Bernstein Beat, which she also helped develop. It’s an orchestral program that centers on her father’s music.
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Alexander, who has a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Master’s degree from NYU, has worked as a drama teacher at the Packer-Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He also has experience in acting and used to work as a production associate at ABC News.
Meanwhile, Nina has also worked as an actress at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. She then proceeded to work at the Library of Congress to develop the Bernstein Archives.
Where are they now?
Nina has since left the arts industry and transitioned to working as a food educator.
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Jamie continues to narrate for The Bernstein Beat and also works as a writer and filmmaker.
In 2018, she wrote a memoir titled Famous Father Girl, which told the story of her experiences growing up as the daughter of a music icon.
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Alexander is currently the president of Artful Learning, an educational model based on Leonard Bernstein’s philosophy that art can be integrated into every subject.
He’s also currently the vice president and treasurer of The Leonard Bernstein Office.
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What was Leonard Bernstein’s cause of death?
Leonard Bernstein died in 1990 due to emphysema.
Per The New York Times, his doctor noted that he died of a heart attack caused by ”progressive emphysema complicated by a pleural tumor and a series of pulmonary infections.”
He had been diagnosed with emphysema long before his death, and has also suffered from asthma and bronchitis.
“Everything had become such an effort for him: his breathing, his insomnia, and all the additional threescore-and-ten indignities,” Jamie wrote in her memoir. “His belly was terribly distended; while the rest of him seemed to be collapsing in on itself.”