Leonard Bernstein Estate Actually Responds to Affirm Lydia Tár Was His Student

No mentor/mentee relationship is more iconic than the fictional one between celebrity conductors Leonard Bernstein and Lydia Tár. But in recent months, the connection between the 20th-century music legend and the (also fictional) EGOT-winning Berlin Philharmonic conductor has been called into question — by none other than Lydia Tár’s creator, director Todd Field.

In interviews for publications like Variety and The New Yorker, the director of Best Picture nominee “TÁR” revealed that various references the main character Lydia Tár (played by Cate Blanchett) makes to studying under Bernstein over the course of the film are, at least in his opinion, lies she tells in order to further her own public image.

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“It would be good for the Bernstein estate to let her lie about her association with Leonard Bernstein, even if she maybe never even studied with him, because the optics of that association would be very, very good, given that she’s a woman, given how Lenny’s life ended,” Field told The New Yorker. “But I don’t think she ever studied with Leonard Bernstein. If you look at the math — Lenny dies in what, 1990? When is she studying with Lenny Bernstein? I don’t think it happened.”

Now, however, Field’s account of his own creation’s biography is being disputed by Bernstein’s Estate. In response to his comments to The New Yorker, the estate submitted a letter to the magazine saying that, “In the spirit of the ongoing hubbub over the film,” they can confirm Tár received tutelage from Bernstein. The letter, signed by all three children of Bernstein, claims that Field’s character “was a teen-age prodigy whose talents were so formidable that she was granted special permission to be one of Bernstein’s conducting students at Tanglewood in the summer of 1990, during the final year of Bernstein’s life.”

Since its release in October, “TÁR” has launched several memes about the character, whom some viewers mistook for a real-life figure in the insular classical music world. The jokes have extended to a in-character fan-run Twitter account, articles from outlets like Vulture written in-universe about Tár, and debates about how the composer managed her EGOT wins.

Read the Bernstein estate’s full letter to The New Yorker below.

In Michael Schulman’s interview with the director Todd Field, Field speculated that the fictional protagonist of his new movie, the conductor Lydia Tár, might have lied about studying with our father, Leonard Bernstein. As representatives of Bernstein’s estate, and in the spirit of the ongoing hubbub over the film, we can assure Field that his heroine was a teen-age prodigy whose talents were so formidable that she was granted special permission to be one of Bernstein’s conducting students at Tanglewood in the summer of 1990, during the final year of Bernstein’s life. His impact on her artistry is indelible, down to her churning “washing machine” movements, an intriguing adaptation of Bernstein’s legendary podium style.

Field added, “It would be good for the Bernstein estate to let [Tár] lie about her association with Leonard Bernstein . . . because the optics of that association would be very, very good, given that she’s a woman.” If Field meant to imply that Bernstein’s reputation could benefit from an affiliation with female conductors, Tár herself, as Bernstein’s most famous protégée, could point out that he taught both women and men. He also introduced millions of girls and boys to the joy of music through his televised Young People’s Concerts, the very ones Tár obsessively watched on videocassette. Bernstein inspired thousands of viewers to dedicate themselves to music—precisely what happened to Tár.

Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein
New York City

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