Both Carnegie Hall and its house photographer are celebrating the life of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein this season. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.

Leonard Bernstein conducted the classics and composed Broadway hits. As house photographer at Carnegie Hall, Steve J Sherman captured the man and his music.

From his Midtown studio, Sherman, who specializes in music photography, says classical music is a challenge, but Bernstein always created his own excitement.

"He came out embodying this stuff, loving it, living this music, breathing this music," said Sherman. "When he was there, he gave 200 percent. He gave everything. In rehearsals, when nobody's looking, he's flying around, jumping around. Not because he was a showman, but because he really felt it. That's where the music took him!"

To mark the 90th anniversary of Bernstein's birth, Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic have organized a citywide musical salute to the maestro.

Sherman is also helping to celebrate the life of the legend, displaying some of his most prized photos of Bernstein in a new book.

"There's going to be a beautiful coffee table book coming out in 2010, which will coincide with the 20th anniversary of his death," said Sherman. "It's going to be called 'Leonard Bernstein at Work, His Final Years: 1984-1990.'"

As the house photographer at Carnegie Hall, Sherman took countless color photographs of
Bernstein. But he says the book will be black and white, because it conveys more emotion.

"He would exhaust himself in a concert. He would come off at the end of a concert happy. He loved his audience, but he would come off exhausted," said Sherman. "Waiting backstage for him would be water, whiskey, a lit cigarette, sometimes even air, oxygen with an oxygen mask. He'd be exhausted. He'd take a little air, puff on his cigarette, knock down the whiskey, and head up backstage to the roar of the audience."

Bernstein told Sherman his favorite image was the one pictured above, from 1985 at Carnegie Hall, because while most shots of him show him wild and crazy, Sherman's shot showed him quiet, but with the same level of intensity.

On the other hand, Sherman's favorite is from Avery Fisher Hall in 1988. He says the photo, seen on the right, captures Bernstein's power, energy, and total abandon to the joy and passion of the music.

For more information on Sherman's photography, go to www.stevejsherman.com.

The Leonard Bernstein Festival runs through December 13, 2008. For more information on the festival, go to BernsteinFestival.org.

Carnegie Hall's opening night concert salute to Bernstein will be shown on Great Performances on October 29th on Channel 13.