Bernard Zaslav (April 7, 1926 - December 28, 2016)

Bernard Zaslav was an American viola soloist and chamber musician with an extensive recording and performance career. A founding member of The Composers Quartet in 1965, he went on to play with the Fine Arts Quartet, Vermeer Quartet, and the Stanford String Quartet. He has also performed and recorded as the Zaslav Duo with his wife, pianist Naomi Zaslav. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Bernard Zaslav, viola and Naomi Zaslav, piano Hall Overton's Sonata for Viola and Piano Recorded in concert on June 22, 1989 at the 17th International Viola Congress at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California.

Lotte Rysanek-Doerle, Austrian Soprano, Dies at 93

Rysanek-Doerler died Wednesday, 14 DEC 2016, at age 93. The sister of the late Austrian dramatic soprano Leonie Rysanek, Rysanek-Doerler appeared in nearly 1,000 performances and close to 50 roles at the State Opera. Appearances at other top venues included the Bayreuth Festival the Munich State Opera and the Hamburg State Opera. Rysanek-Doerler also was an accomplished operetta and concert singer. WorldNews VIDEO: Wiener Staatsoper Il Trovatore 11.4.1971 LIVE "d'amor sul ali rose" Lotte Rysanek Horst Stein dir

Elizabeth Bell (1928 – December 19, 2016) was an award winning American composer.

ELIZABETH BELL was born in 1928; graduated from Wellesley College (Music) in 1950, and from Juilliard (Composition) in 1953. She was music critic of the Ithaca Journal, 1971-1975; one of the founders and a longtime director of New York Women Composers; and a member of Board of Governors of American Composers Alliance, 2000-2004. She received grants and commissions from fine artists around the world, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Bradshaw/Buono duo, the Inoue Chamber Ensemble, North/South Consonance, the Putnam Valley Orchestra, and Vienna Modern Masters. Awards included the Delius Prize (Keyboard), 1994; first prize (1986), and grand prize (1996) in the Utah Composers Competition; many Meet-the-Composer grants.

  WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Elizabeth Bell - composer Student years at Wellesley and graduate school at Juilliard - On composition and rule-breaking

Heinrich Schiff (born 18 November 1951, in Gmunden, Austria; 23 December 2016 in Wien) was an Austrian cellist and conductor.

He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra and made his solo debut in Vienna and London in 1971. He studied conducting with Hans Swarovsky, and made his conducting debut in 1986. Schiff was Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia from 1990 to 1996, and recorded with them for the NMC label. He also held chief conductorships with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark(1996–2000), and the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur. In 2004, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and served in the post from 2005 to 2008. He stood down from the post in 2008 for health reasons. Schiff plays the "Mara" Stradivarius (1711) and "Sleeping Beauty" made by Montagnana in Venice in 1739. His recording of the Bach Cello Suites won prizes, and his recording of the Shostakovich concertos won the Grand Prix du Disque. His recording of the Brahms Double Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Wolfgang Sawallisch won the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. Composers who have written cello concertos for Schiff include John Casken and Friedrich Cerha. Among his students are Rudi Spring, Gautier Capuçon, Richard Harwood and Natalie Clein. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO...Heinrich Schiff BBC Interview Dmitri Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Opus 107

 

Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016)

Karel Husa was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.[1] In 1954 he went to the United States and became an American citizen in 1959.

  WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Karel Husa (*1921): Sinfonia n.1 (1953) -- Orchestra Sinfonica di Praga diretta da Karel Husa --

 

Elliott Schwartz (January 19, 1936 – December 7, 2016) was an American composer.

A graduate of Columbia University, he was Beckwith Professor Emeritus of music at Bowdoin College joining the faculty in 1964. In 2006, the Library of Congress acquired his papers to make them part of their permanent collection. Elliott Schwartz ca.2006 Photo Erik Jorgensen He held visiting residencies and fellowships at the University of California (Santa Barbara and San Diego), Ohio State University, Harvard University, Tufts University, Cambridge and Oxford Universities (UK), and the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center (Bellagio, Italy). Performances of his music include the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Houston Symphonies, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Kreutzer and Borromeo Quartets, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space and the MOMA Summer Garden (NYC); Tanglewood, the Bath Festival (UK); Leningrad Spring (Russia), Gaudeamus Music Week (Netherlands), and the European Youth Orchestra Festival (Denmark). Recordings of his music can be heard on the New World, CRI, Capstone, Innova, Albany and GM labels. A CD recording of his six chamber concertos has recently been released by BMOP-SOUND. In 2006, Schwartz’s 70th birthday was celebrated with concerts, lectures and residencies at the University of Minnesota, the Library of Congress (Washington), Oxford, and the Royal Academy of Music (London). WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: ELLIOTT SCHWARTZ'S "Voyager for Orchestra" (2002) 

Kamilló Lendvay (28 December 1928 − 30 November 2016) Hungarian composer, conductor, and music educator

 Lendvay was born in Budapest and attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1949 to 1957, where he studied with János Viski and László Somogyi. He began his career in Szeged as a conductor, music coach, and director of the choir at Szeged Opera and then was musical director of the State Puppet Theatre from 1960 to 1966, musical director of the Hungarian Army Art Ensemble from 1966 to 1968, and conductor and (from 1972) musical director of the Budapest Operetta Theatre from 1970 to 1974. He was a professor at the Liszt Academy from 1972 to 1992, where he was head of the music theory department from 1976. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO...Requiem y Kyrie del Requiem de Kamillo Lendvay

RIP...Jerrold Rubenstein, a New Yorker who became concertmaster at La Monnaie orchestra in Brussels and later of the Belgian national orchestra.

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Was born in in New York City, United States and became concertmaster at La Monnaie orchestra in Brussels and later of the Belgian national orchestra. A formidable chamber musician, widely recorded, Jerrold taught for 30 years at the Antwerp Conservatoire, and at Izmir and Dublin. He founded the Festival Mozart at Waterloo.

- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/12/death-of-a-noted-concertmaster-and-festival-founder/#sthash.MastH971.tGrwiPcQ.dpuf

VIDEO...Jerrold Rubenstein & Dalia Ouziel - Brahms violin sonata 1 (1st mvt)

RIP...death of Donald Montanaro, a legendary teacher at the Curtis Institute

He played in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1957 to 2005. A student of Daniel Bonade, the first clarinet teacher at Curtis, he represented a line of tradition that stretched back 90 years and more. His students occupy principal positions in many of the world’s premier ensembles. He was a member of the New Orleans Symphony before joining the Philadelphia Orchestra as associate principal clarinet in 1957, a position he held until 2005. Mr. Montanaro has performed at the Marlboro and Casals festivals and toured Europe and the Far East as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles. He is a founder and the music director of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble. A member of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1957 to 2005 and a Curtis faculty member since 1980, his students can be found around the world, occupying important positions in Beijing, Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Malmö, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seoul, and Toronto; as well as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. - See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/12/the-go-to-clarinet-teacher-has-died/#sthash.6y4WdfIx.t3oZnoAk.dpuf