Williams faculty member Ronald Feldman has played an important role in bringing the world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Music for String Quartet” to the general public for the first time. The recording is to be released on September 8, 2023.
Two movements of the piece, composed by Bernstein in 1936 at age 18 while a student at Harvard University, were recorded by Lucia Lin, Natalie Rose Kress, Danny Kim, and Ronald Feldman, now director of the Berkshire Symphony and a former cellist with the Boston Symphony. The full album also features a seldom-recorded work by Bernstein’s longtime friend Aaron Copland.
Bernstein’s long lost work had been tucked away in a family music cabinet for decades until its existence was shared with former Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Librarian John Perkel, who steadfastly shepherded the piece from its rediscovery to this historic release.
