Class Correspondent

The University of California, Santa Cruz, presented Elliot Aronson, a professor emeritus of psychology, with the 2012 Distinguished Social Sciences Emeriti Faculty Award. He is the only person in the 120-year history of the American Psychological Association to have won all three of its major awards — for writing, teaching and research. In response to a story in The Jewish Advocate about Alexander Bernstein, the son of former Brandeis faculty member Leonard Bernstein, Nancy Golden wrote a letter to the editor about her experiences with the famed conductor and composer: “I am proud to say that I was a music major in the third graduating class of Brandeis University in 1954. As a student, I was most fortunate to be in the midst of ‘greatness,’ with composers and instructors such as Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Erwin Bodky and, most memorably, Leonard Bernstein. Brandeis built an amphitheater for musical performances the year Bernstein was on campus teaching. Though I took conducting class with him, which was a fantastic experience, I learned the most watching his daily orchestra rehearsals in the amphitheater, preparing for the first performance of his new opera, ‘Candide,’ and his ‘Trouble in Tahiti.’ I feel blessed that I was able to have had this unforgettable experience of Leonard Bernstein in my life.”
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