Leonard Bernstein’s opera Candide and especially his musical WESTSIDE STORY (1955), accepted as a classic model in the genre, are globally renowned.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, this modern-day Romeo and Juliet story is about the love of young lovers Mary and Tony, who are members of two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds fighting for control of the streets of New York’s Upper West Side, has been reinvented by four ingenious creators – director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim (who has established himself as one of the most important lyricists since his debut) and playwright Arthur Laurents. It opened on 26 September 1957 at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway and ran for 732 performances.
The first film version of the musical was released in the USA in 1961. West Side Story was the big winner at the 34th Academy Awards, where it was nominated in 11 categories and won 10 of them, including Best Picture and Best Director. On February 13th of that year, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story were premiered by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss. Five years before his death, in 1984, Bernstein recorded the musical with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. The recording is a model of perfection, and the process was filmed in the documentary The Making of West Side Story.
There are many arrangements of tunes from the musical for various instruments and ensembles that are performed on the concert stage.
THE TRUMPET AND ORCHESTRA SUITE is arranged by American pianist, orchestra leader, Hollywood composer and Broadway orchestrator Bill Elliot (born as William F. Elliott in 1951), who has been honored numerous times in the most prestigious forums: the 2017 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for Broadway Musical Bandstand, in 2012 he was nominated for Tony and Grammy Awards for Broadway’s Nice Work if You Can Get It., in 2015 he won the Tony Award for Best Orchestration for the Broadway musical An American in Paris, in 2017 he was again nominated for a Tony, etc.