Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist,

JERRY HERMAN will be best known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He was nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.


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Dalton Baldwin (December 19, 1931 – December 12, 2019) was an American collaborative pianist.

Baldwin made more than 100 recordings and won numerous prizes, working with outstanding singers such as Gérard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, and Jessye Norman. He visited southern Africa on numerous occasions, accompanying Gérard Souzay three times (in 1958 for the first time) and Elly Ameling twice (in 1973 for the first time). He died on December 12, 2019, aged 87.

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Abbey Henry Simon (January 8, 1920– December 18, 2019) was an American concert pianist.

He was a pupil of Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute of Music and a winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1940. Simon performed to critical acclaim. The critic Harold C. Schonberg of the New York Times once hailed Simon as a "supervirtuoso." Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer wrote, "Simon's recital offered more than a glimpse into the fabled golden age of piano playing... His virtuosity is marked not only by speed, power, lightness and accuracy but also by intricate interplay of voices and lambent colors." Simon toured in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific. He appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Trenton Symphony Orchestra. He died on December 18, 2019, just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday. WIKIPEDIA

Conductor Mariss Jansons has died at age 76

Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 30 November 2019) was a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons and the singer Iraida Jansone. Jansons died in the late evening of November 30, 2019, at his home in St. Petersburg after a longstanding battle with a heart condition. He was 76. He had lived for several years with an implanted defibrillator. Complete bio at Wikipedia

RIP Sir Stephen Cleobury CBE

He Who Sings, Prays Twice. 

A quote from St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
 an early (354-430 AD) theologian. 

It speaks to the power of singing.

Sir Stephen Cleobury CBE (/ˈkliːbəri/ KLEE-bər-ee; 31 December 1948 – 22 November 2019) was an English organist and Director of Music. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers. WIKIPEDIA

Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer.

Zender was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals. As a conductor, he worked at the Theater Freiburg, Theater Bonn, Opernhaus Kiel and Hamburg State Opera, and led the radio orchestra Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. He taught at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. His opera Stephen Climax premiered in 1986 at the Oper Frankfurt, and his third opera, Chief Joseph, premiered in 2005 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

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RIP conductor RAYMOND LEPPARD

Raymond John Leppard CBE (11 August 1927 – 22 October 2019) was a British conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the first major conductors to perform Baroque opera, reviving works by Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli. He conducted operas at major international opera houses and festivals, including the Glyndebourne Festival where he led the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's The Rising of the Moon, the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House. He composed film scores such as Lord of the Flies and Alfred the Great. WIKIPEDIA

Jessye Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist.

A dramatic soprano, Norman was associated in with roles such as Wagner's Sieglinde, Ariadne by Richard Strauss, Gluck's Alceste, Beethoven's Leonore and Cassandra in Les Troyens by Berlioz.[3] and Cassandre. Norman was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and became a Spingarn Medalist in 2013. Apart from receiving several honorary doctorates and other awards, she also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, and was a member of the British Royal Academy of Music. WIKIPEDIA

Paul Badura-Skoda (6 October 1927 – 25 September 2019) was an Austrian pianist.

He was best known for his performances of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, but had an extensive repertoire including many works of Chopin and Ravel. Badura-Skoda was well known for his performances on historical instruments, and owned several (his recording of the complete piano sonatas of Schubert is on five instruments from his private collection). A prolific recording artist, Badura-Skoda made over 200 records, including many duplicates created to highlight the sound of different pianos. For instance, in a 2013 record, he recorded Schubert's last sonata three times on instruments from the 1820s, 1920s, and early 2000s (having already recorded the piece several times before); one of his box sets of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven similarly included three different versions of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata. Indeed, he is the only person to have recorded the complete piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert on both historic and modern instruments. WIKIPEDIA

RIP: CHRISTOPHER ROUSE....(February 15, 1949 – September 21, 2019)

Christopher Chapman Rouse III. American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Rouse was the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

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Roger Boutry (27 February 1932 – 7 September 2019) was a French composer and conductor.

As a conductor, he began his career with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo Orchestra, then conducted the orchestras of the Brussels R.A.T.B., the Rome R.A.I., the Concerts Colonne, Orchestre Lamoureux, Pasdeloup Orchestra. Appointed a professor at the Conservatoire, he taught harmony from 1962 to 1997. His students included Claude Pichaureau, Thierry Escaich, Olivier Chassain, François Weigel, Naji Hakim etc. He also taught choral conducting at the Centre national de préparation au CAEM (Paris) from 1965 to 1970, and from 1963 he was in charge of preparing the writing tests for the recruitment competitions for army music conductors. In January 1973, after a competition on title, he was appointed music director of the Republican Guard and thus conducted the harmony orchestra, symphony orchestra, string orchestra and chamber music ensembles until February 1997.

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Anner Bylsma

Anner Bylsma (born Anne Bijlsma, 17 February 1934, The Hague; died 25 July 2019, Amsterdam) was a Dutch cellist who played on both modern and period instruments in a historically informed style. He took an interest in music from an early age. He studied with Carel van Leeuwen Boomkamp at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and won the Prix d'excellence in 1957.







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Aaron Rosand (March 15, 1927 – July 9, 2019) was an American violinist.

Born in Hammond, Indiana, he studied with Leon Sametini at the Chicago Musical College and with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he taught from 1981 until his death. Particularly noted for his insightful and passionate performances of the romantic repertoire and his beautiful but not syrupy tone, Rosand recorded prolifically and appeared all over the world with many major orchestras and concert organizations.

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BIO

Jörg Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist

He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on chamber music and lieder. He played with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as a piano duo with Paul Badura-Skoda, and with string players such as Josef Suk and Antonio Janigro. Demus was instrumental in bringing the historic fortepiano to concert podiums. He was a member of the Legion of Honour, among many awards. He is regarded as one of the leading Austrian pianists of the immediate post-World War II era.


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Hawaii's gift to good music, Jack de Mello has died at the age of 102

Composer, arranger, producer and recording artist Jack de Mello, who created an expansive new synthesis of Hawaiian melodies and lush, contemporary orchestral music, died Saturday in Las Vegas. He was 102. During his prolific career, de Mello recorded close to 160 albums of all types of music, including almost 500 Hawaiian songs. He recorded at top studios around the world and “gave Hawaiian music a new identity,” according to a statement from his family. Born Nov. 15, 1916, in Oakland, Calif., de Mello showed early musical talent. He studied music and music theory at the Bickett Military Band School in San Francisco and was only 9 years old when he began playing the trumpet. The family recalled his stories about piling into a Model T Ford with his brother to go to his lessons, which also required travel by ferry boat and train since the Bay Bridge had yet to be built. As a young musician in San Francisco, de Mello joined the staff band at the CBS radio network and later served as a musical director at ABC and NBC. He entered the Army as a bandmaster at Camp McQuaide in California. As musical director of Mutual Network top-rated radio show, “Beat The Villian,” de Mello hired the Society Band led by Joe Reichman. They went on to perform together at major U.S. hotels including the Waldorf Astoria and Roosevelt in New York. During a run at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, they accepted an invitation to reopen the Royal Hawaiian hotel in 1947. The hotel had been used exclusively by the U.S. Navy during World War II. From...HONOLULU STAR ADVERTISER

The soprano Heather Harper, who has died aged 88, was one of the best loved and most respected singers of her generation.

MAY 8, 1930 - APRIL 22, 2019

Her recordings include Peter Grimes in both audio and video formats, as well as the War Requiem (Chandos). She took part in 1957 performances (conducted by Antony Hopkins) of sacred works by Michel-Richard Delalande, recorded in LP format on the L'Oiseau-Lyre label; these pieces had never previously found their way to disc. Superb renditions in the 1970s (conducted by Sir Georg Solti) are now available, notably Mahler's 8th Symphony with Watts, Minton, Popp, Kollo, Shirley-Quirk and Talvela (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1972, Decca) and Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten with Dernesch, Hesse, King and Berry (Covent Garden, 1976, Fiori). More recently, a live concert performance of Britten's Our Hunting Fathers has been issued on the London Philharmonic Orchestra's own label. References WIKIPEDIA | GUARDIAN OBIT

Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 1927 – 8 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer

The Austrian conductor and composer who promoted contemporary music in opera and concert. Raised in Argentina, he first worked in Vienna and was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Royal Swedish Opera. He conducted notable world premieres such as György Ligeti's Requièm, Karlheinz Stockhausen's Carré, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten and his Requiem für einen jungen Dichter. He directed the Frankfurt Opera from 1977 to 1987, installing more contemporary operas, winning stage directors such as Hans Neuenfels and Ruth Berghaus, and reviving operas such as Schreker's Die Gezeichneten. During his era, the company became one of the leading operas. Gielen was also principal conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra (1969–1973), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–1986) and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–1999). As a composer, he worked in the tradition of the Second Viennese School, often setting modern literature to music. His works were premiered with performers such as Joan Carroll, Siegfried Palm, Aloys Kontarsky and the LaSalle Quartet.

Peter Hurford OBE (22 November 1930 – 3 March 2019) was a British organist and composer.

He is best known for his interpretations of Bach, having recorded the complete Bach organ works for Decca and BBC Radio 3. His expertise also encompasses recordings of the Romantic literature for organ, performances notable for attention to stylistic detail. His playing style is noted for clean articulation, beauty of expression, and a sense of proper tempo. He suffered a minor stroke in 1997, but recovered enough to resume his performing career seven months later. In 2008 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, hence he retired formally from performing in 2009. ("Bach Notes", London Bach Society, Autumn 2013). Peter Hurford died on 3 March 2019, aged 88. WIKIPEDIA

Joseph Flummerfelt, a Force Behind Mighty Choruses, Dies at 82

Flummerfelt attended DePauw University for his first studies in organ and church music, graduating in 1958. He followed this with a master's degree in choral conducting from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music (1962) and a doctorate from the University of Illinois (1971); he also studied under Nadia Boulanger, Julius Herford, and Elaine Brown. In addition to serving for 23 years as maestro di coro for the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, Flummerfelt has been director of choral activities for the American spin-off Spoleto USA in Charleston, SC, since 1977. He made his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1988 and serves as chorusmaster for that ensemble. He has also founded and continues to direct the New York Choral Artists. He taught at the University of Illinois (1963-1964), DePauw University (1964-1968), and Florida State University (1968-1971), before joining the faculty at Westminster Choir College (beginning in 1971).

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André George Previn, KBE (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019)[1] was a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer.

André George Previn, KBE (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. Previn won four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement). Previn died on February 28, 2019 at home in Manhattan at the age of 89.

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Hilde Zadek, Mainstay of the Vienna State Opera, Dies at 101

Hildegard Zadek (15 December 1917 – 21 February 2019) was a German operatic soprano. She was Kammersängerin at the Vienna State Opera. Zadek made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni on 26 November 1952. Beside Donna Anna (4 performances), at the Met she sang Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2 performances), Elsa in Lohengrin (1 performance), and the title role of Aida (1 performance on 14 January 1953, her last at the Met). She also appeared at the San Francisco Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Beginning in 1967, she taught at the Vienna Music Academy, and gave masterclasses. Her last performance at the Vienna State Opera was as Gerhilde in Die Walküre on 3 January 1971, and the same year she retired from the stage. Wikipedia

Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer

Dominick Argento was known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and a lyrical use of twelve-tone writing, though none of Argento's music approaches the experimental avant-garde fashions of the post-World War II era. As a student in the 1950s, Argento divided his time between the United States and Italy.
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Hans Stadlmair (3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer.

Hans Stadlmair conducted the Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, many in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, including premieres. His compositions include works of all genres except opera. His Miró, an Entrada for orchestra, premiered at the Gasteig in Munich in 2011, with Christian Thielemann conducting the Münchner Philharmoniker.


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Sanford Sylvan (December 19, 1953 – January 29, 2019) was an American baritone.

Sylvan received five Grammy nominations for his participation these recordings: Charles Fussell's Symphony for Baritone and Orchestra "Wilde" (2009); Adams's The Wound-Dresser (1990), which was written for Sylvan; Fauré's L'horizon chimérique (1999); Beloved That Pilgrimage (1992), a compilation of songs by Theodore Chandler, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland; and the soundtrack for the Penny Woolcock film of Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer (2003). Of his performance in that film, chosen for the 2003 Sundance Festival, Anthony Tommasini wrote that Sylvan "should have received an Oscar nomination for his courageous portrayal of the murder victim Leon Klinghoffer". He premiered a number of works by Adams, Philip Glass, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Harbison and Christopher Rouse, including Rouse's Requiem in 2007.

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Michel Legrand, Oscar-winning 'Windmills of Your Mind' composer, dead at 86

MICHEL LEGRAND was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, he wrote over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many memorable songs. He is best known for his often haunting, jazz-tinged film music. His celebrated scores for the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). WIKIPEDIA

Theo Adam (1 August 1926 – 10 January 2019)

German operatic bass-baritone and bass singer who had international career in opera, concert and recital from 1949. He was a member of the Staatsoper Dresden for his entire career, and sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1952 to 1980. He particularly excelled in portraying roles by Richard Wagner, especially Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, which he also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, among others. In concert, he was a much admired Bach singer and also drew acclaim for his interpretation of the title character of Mendelssohn's Elijah. He was a voice teacher at the Musikhochschule Dresden. WIKIPEDIA

Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 - January 15, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian.

Notable for starring in Broadway and film musicals, her characters typically radiate a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect. Carol Channing also studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. She began as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, most recently playing Dolly in 1995. Channing was nominated for her first Tony Award in 1956 for The Vamp followed by a nomination in 1961 for Show Girl. She received her fourth Tony Award nomination for the musical Lorelei in 1974.

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