Onstage company
Documented collaborators
Bernstein Songfest is a landmark 12-movement song cycle for six singers and orchestra, composed by Leonard Bernstein. Drawing texts from American poets like Walt Whitman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, and Rafael Alberti de Burgos, the work was commissioned for the U.S. Bicentennial and first performed in full on October 11, 1977 by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernstein at the Kennedy Center. While there isn’t a dedicated Bernstein Songfest touring artist, the work remains a cornerstone of Bernstein’s late-career repertoire and is closely associated with his living legacy through official Leonard Bernstein channels and festival programming.