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My new book, Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, is released from Oxford University Press.

Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and art with a history of Leonard Bernstein’s transformation from an American icon to a world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century, tracing the deeply emotional connections Bernstein formed with two little-known Japanese individuals through their personal letters that had never been seen before.
The articulate, moving letters of Kazuko Amano—a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in 1947 and became a close family friend—and Kunihiko Hashimoto—a young man who fell in love with the maestro in 1979 and later became his business representative—convey the meaning Bernstein and his music had at various stages of their lives. The book further traces the making of a global Bernstein amidst the shifting landscape of classical music.
Dearest Lenny is a story of relationships—between the two individuals and Bernstein, the United States and the world, art and commerce, artists and the state, private and public, conventions and transgressions, dreams and realities—that were at the core of Bernstein’s greatest achievements and challenges and that made him truly a maestro of the world. The book paints a poignant portrait of individuals connected across cultures, languages, age, and status through correspondence and music—and the world that shaped their relationships.


   
   

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吉原真里 MariYoshihara