PATERSON, N.J. (WCBS 880) — A New Jersey performing arts center will celebrate one of its most successful education programs with a special gala on Friday night.
The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts will celebrate at the Westmount Country Club in Woodland Park with the event titled, “West Side Story in Paterson.”
As WCBS 880’s Lynda Lopez learned, the gala is inspired by Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic movie – which was partially filmed last summer in Paterson.
She reports the performing arts center will also present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein.
Bernstein will be honored for her for her lifetime support for the performing arts and programs that teach music to children in neighborhoods that lack arts education – something she says “couldn’t possibly be more important to me.”
“Everybody benefits from sharing music and learning how to commute and get along and listen and empathize. Everybody benefits from that, but it’s especially meaningful in communities where there are many challenges,” Bernstein said. “In those communities, having this experience, after school, of sharing music with your peers is invaluable.”
The author and filmmaker also says she was, of course, “delighted” to learn that the gala would pay homage to “West Side Story.”
“It’s the most famous work of my dad’s and he wrote it when I was very young,” Bernstein said. “Basically, my brother, sister and I have never known life without ‘West Side Story’ and we refer to it as our fourth sibling.”
She says the film has had such a lasting impact for so many Americans, mostly because it has held up over many years.
“There is nothing about ‘West Side Story’ that is going out of date,” Bernstein said. “It speaks as urgently to us today as it ever has, if not more.”
The gala will feature performances by students from the Paterson Music Project, the New Jersey Youth Symphony and the Performing Arts School.
All guests will also receive a copy of Bernstein’s memoir, “Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein.”