"And now, here is Leonard Bernstein..."

Little did I know it at the time, but my childhood was a golden age of culture on American television. I know it was a wonder to be able to see live performances of orchestras and operas and Broadway shows, and things we'd consider incomprehensible today, like a 90-minute special of Mary Martin and Noel Coward singing popular songs.

But I lived for the CBS Young People's Concerts Leonard Bernstein put on with The New York Philharmonic. Seeing all those kids at Carnegie Hall- well, to me, they might as well have been on the moon as seen from Raeford, North Carolina.

I remember thinking, "I want to live in places where things like this happen," and sixteen years later I was watching Yehudi Menuhin at The Albert Hall in London.

All that came back to me today, listening to this segment from NPR's Studio 360: