Claudia Hellmann (25 November 1923 – 24 May 2017) was a German contralto with the Stuttgart Opera.

Hellmann frequently performed the contralto part in the recordings of Bach's cantatas, his Christmas Oratorio and his Easter Oratorio with the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra and Fritz Werner. She recorded Bach's Magnificat and his Missa in F major with Karl Ristenpart, the Chorale Philippe Caillard, the Saar Radio Chamber Orchestra, Edith Selig, Georg Jelden, Jakob Stämpfli and Maurice André (trumpet) in 1964. In 1963, she recorded the part of Ismene in Orff's Antigonae with Inge Borkh as Antigonae, Keith Engen as Chorführer, Hetty Plümacheras Eurydice, Fritz Uhl as Haemon, and Ernst Haefliger as Tiresias, Ferdinand Leitner conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. She died in Eichwalde. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Bruckner: Mass No.3 In F Minor, WAB 28 - 1. Kyrie · Maria Stader · Claudia Hellmann · Ernst Haefliger · Kim Borg · Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks · Eugen Jochum · Bavarian Radio Chorus...

Barbara Smith Conrad (August 11, 1937 - May 22, 2017)

American operatic mezzo-soprano of international acclaim. In 1957, she became the focus of a racial controversy revolving around her role in a student opera at The University of Texas at Austin. Pressure from the Texas Legislature forced her removal from the cast, and her story received national media coverage. Conrad went on to perform with Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Teatro Nacional in Venezuela, and many others.

  WIKIPEDIA                                                   

Russian cellist Natalia Shakhovskaya has died, aged 81

Natalia Shakhovskaya (September 27, 1935 – May 20, 2017) was a Russian cellist. She studied cello at the Gnessin School of Music and later at the Moscow Conservatory under the tutorship of Semyon Kozolupov. She finished her education at the music conservatory with Mstislav Rostropovich. Shakovskaya won some of the most important cello competitions in Russia and abroad, including; the First Prize and Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky competition in 1962. Shakhovskaya pursued an active career as a soloist in recitals and with the best orchestras and conductors worldwide. She taught at the Moscow Conservatory (as Head of the Cello Chair and Director of Double Bass Department) from 1974 to 1995, after Rostropovich relinquished the post upon his departure from Russia.WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: A. Glazunov. Minstrel Song. Spanish Serenade

William Brohn, Who Made Broadway Orchestras Sing, Dies at 84

William David "Bill" Brohn (March 30, 1933 – May 11, 2017) was an American arranger and orchestrator, best known for his scores of musicals such as Miss Saigon, Ragtime and Wicked. He won the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for Ragtime and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations three times. His work was eclectic, orchestrating many different styles of music. His modern scores are known for their keyboard writing for the orchestra pit, and their balance between acoustic and synthesised sounds. Brohn was one of the few theatre orchestrators to use the E-bow attachment to the electric guitar, which can be heard in his orchestrations for Wicked and Mary Poppins.

 VIDEO: Nick Hutson and Jonathan Cohen sit down to talk to one of musical theatre's most respected orchestrators...

Brain tumour claims US composer, Daniel Brewbaker, 66

The death of Daniel Brewbaker has been reported by friends and family. Daniel, 66, had been suffering for two years from a brain tumour. A composers of great gifts, charm and grace, he was one of the first US composers to be performed in Russia by Valery Gergiev. Based in New York, he spent a long period in Europe working with Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio and Henri Dutilleux.

  Slippeddisc.com

VIDEO: now by Daniel Brewbaker - text by e.e.cummings... Concord SIngers Concert 05/19/2012 Michael Sanflippo, Director Caroline Parody

OBIT Documentary

Lights, Camera, Obits!

NY Times Profile Obit Staff

 How do you put a life into 500 words? Ask the staff obituary writers at the New York Times. OBIT is a first-ever glimpse into the daily rituals, joys and existential angst of the Times obit.

 

Celebrated Grimsby opera singer Norma Procter dies at 89

Norma Procter, who has died aged 89, was a contralto with a rich, creamy voice in the style of Clara Butt and Kathleen Ferrier Norma Procter (15 February 1928, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire – 2 May 2017, Grimsby) was an English contralto who studied with Roy Henderson. She was especially known for her oratorio and recital work, but also performed in opera, with her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1961 as Gluck's Orpheus. She also sang Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia for Britten at the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival. She is particularly known for her recordings of Mahler. The beauty smiling, and sweet beguiling.. (Norma Procter - contralto)

David Pell (February 26, 1925 – May 8, 2017) was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader

Dave Pell (February 26, 1925 – May 8, 2017) was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader born in New York City. He was best known for leading a cool jazz octet in the 1950s. In 1953, he began working with his own ensembles, mostly as an octet: Pell on tenor sax, another saxophone (either a baritone or an alto), trumpet and trombone, guitar, and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section). Among the octet players were Pepper Adams, Benny Carter, Mel Lewis, Red Mitchell, Marty Paich, Art Pepper and, early his career, John Williams. These ensembles recorded in the 1950s for Atlantic, Kapp, Coral, Capitol, and RCA Victor; alongside this, he played as a sideman for Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa. He also produced in the 1950s and 1960s for Tops, Uni and Liberty; among his credits in production were some singles by Gary Lewis & the Playboys. WIKIPEDIA

Dave Pell (ts), Bob Gordon (bs), Don Fagerquist (tp), Ray Sims (tb), Donn Trenner (p,cel), Tony Rizzi (g), Buddy Clark (b), Bill Richmond (ds) Album：" Dave Pell / Jazz & Romantic Places " Recorded：Hollywood, April, 1955

Francis Travis (9 July 1921 – 28 April 2017) was an American-born Swiss orchestral conductor.

Conductor Francis Travis was born in Detroit, Michigan, his advanced musical studies were at the University of Zurich, with a Ph.D. in musicology after writing a dissertation on Giuseppe Verdi. He was a pupil of Hermann Scherchen, later his assistant. He was opera director in Basel for two years, then Trier, Germany, for two years and was regular guest conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. His discography includes works by Joachim Raff, Heinz Holliger with whom he collaborated, and Berlioz and Ravel. He also premiered Swiss and Swedish music. From 1990 to 1995 he lived in Tokyo with many concerts with Japanese orchestras and choruses. He was professor for Orchestral Conducting at Tokyo National University for Music and the Fine Arts. Travis has returned virtually each year to Japan for engagements, including concerts at the Kusatsu Summer Music Festival in 2001 and 2006. Travis later lived in Munich where he died. (from WIKIPEDIA)

  90th Birthday Concert - Francis Travis - Tokyo Geidai Strings - 15 July 2011

Eduard Brunner (14 July 1939 – 27 April 2017) was a classical clarinetist.

Eduard Brunner began his musical education in Basel (Switzerland) where he was born, continuing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Cahuzac. For thirty years he was the first Clarinet of the Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and later he was Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Saarbrücken (Germany). His concert engagements as soloist and in chamber ensembles took him around the world and he frequently participated in Music Festivals at Lockenhaus, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, amongst others. He also undertook numerous Master Classes in different countries and has an extensive discography of over 250 works for Clarinet. He edited and recorded the complete works of Carl Stamitz and Ludwig Spohr for Clarinet.

  WIKIPEDIA

F. Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet and Piano / Eduard Brunner & Alice Burla

Agnes Giebel (10 August 1921 – 24 April 2017) was a German classical soprano.

Agnes Giebel was born in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, where she lived the first years of her life. She studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen and made her first public appearance as a singer in 1947. Her career lasted until the 1990s during which she established a wide-ranging discography.

  WIKIPEDIA

Dorothy Dorow (22 August 1930 - 15 April 2017) was an English soprano.

Dorow debuted in London in 1958. She has sung world-premieres of works by such composers as György Ligeti, Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Dallapiccola, Sylvano Bussotti and Luigi Nono. She is also noted for her performances of the vocal works of Igor Stravinsky. Dorow performed internationally including at the Kraków Philharmonic. After several years of living abroad (including the Netherlands) she retired in 1992 to Duloe in Cornwall.

  TELEGRAPH OBIT

British cellist Olga Hegedus has died aged 96

British musician Olga Hegedus, longtime co-principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, died at the age of 96 on 22 April 2017. In 1981, Ms Hegedus was one of a number of selected musicians invited to perform at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

  The STRAD Obit


 VIDEO: J.S. Bach: "Bist du bei mir", BWV 508 · Kiri Te Kanawa · Christopher Bowers-Broadbent · Olga Hegedus 

Russian violinist Grigori Zhislin has died, aged 71

Grigori Yefimovich Zhislin (Russian Григорий Ефимович Жислин; 14 May 1945 in Leningrad – 2 May 2017 in Berlin) was a Russian violinist and pedagogue. He studied with Yuri Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory. At the age of 22, he won the First Prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa and the Silver Medal at the Queen Elizabeth Competition. Zhislin's repertoire contains concertos and recitals of all genres, for violin as well as for viola. As a soloist, Zhislin appeared with the Leningrad/St Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, State Symphony Orchestra, RRS (Mailand, Turin), RBC Orchestras (Australian), Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Symphonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Krakow Philharmonic, Stockholm Radio Orchestra. He played under the conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Aldo Ceccato, Erik Klass, Karl Österreicher, Kirill Kondrashin, Dimitri Kitajenko, Alexander Lasarev, Arvid Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Woldemar Nelsson, Sauilus Sondeckis, Tadeusz Strugala, Natan Rachlin, Noeme Jarvi, Vladimir Fedosseyev. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: G.F Haendel – Passacaglia / Robert Kabara, Grigori Zhislin, Sinfonietta Cracovia 

Former London Sinfonietta leader Nona Liddell has died aged 89 ..

Nona Liddell (9 June 1927 – 18 April 2017) was a British violinist. She was a soloist, leader of chamber music ensembles, and a teacher. For many years she was leader of the London Sinfonietta. Nona Liddell's first solo appearance was in 1947 at the Proms, playing Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult. It was the first of six appearances at the Proms; in 1983 she gave the Proms premiere of Kurt Weill's Violin Concerto, with the London Sinfonietta, a work which they also recorded. From 1957 to 1973 she was leader of the English String Quartet, and she later led the Richards Piano Quartet and London Piano Quartet. In the 1950s and 1960s she played with the English Chamber Orchestra, playing works by Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival. She first worked with the London Sinfonietta in 1969, and was appointed leader in 1970, remaining until 1994; she often appeared with them as a soloist. She was leader of the Monteverdi Orchestra from 1973 to 1979, and appeared as guest leader of other orchestras. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Kenneth Leighton: Violin Concerto [Brian Priestman-BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra-Nona Liddell, violin].

New York broadcasting legend and Sarasota resident June LeBell has died

Official Bio

 LeBell was a fixture at New York City’s WQXR. Hired on as the first female announcer on a major U.S. commercial classical music radio station, she hung up the mic in 2002, but returned on air in South Florida with a weekly Sunday afternoon one-hour interview program for WSMR-FM titled June LeBell’s Music Conversations. June LeBell, New York’s first woman presenter on a commercial classical station, has died of ovarian cancer on her 73rd birthday. She was frontline cultural interviewer on WQXR, conducting five to ten interviews a week. She moved later to WSMR. ad week

 VIDEO: New York broadcasting legend and Sarasota resident June LeBell talks about her music/talk show on WSMR. Video by Marty Clear, Bradenton Herald. Bradenton.com.