ANITA KERR RIP

 

Anita Jean Grilli (October 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022), known professionally as Anita Kerr, was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Europe.

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ANGELA LANSBURY 1925-2022

 

Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury DBE (16 October 1925 – 11 October 2022) was an Irish-British[2] and American actress and singer who played various roles across film, stage, and television. Her career, one of the longest in the entertainment industry, spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States; her work also received much international attention. She was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema at the time of her death.WIKIPEDIA BIO

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022)

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz composer, pianist, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five gold records and three Grammy Awards in his career. His album The In Crowd earned Lewis critical praise and the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance. His best known singles include "The In Crowd", "Sun Goddess", and "Wade in the Water." Until 2009, he was the host of the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show on the Chicago radio station WNUA. Lewis was also active in musical education in Chicago. He founded the Ramsey Lewis Foundation, established the Ravinia's Jazz Mentor Program, and served on the board of trustees for the Merit School of Music and The Chicago High School for the Arts.

RIP composer Vangelis

Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou ( 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022 ), known professionally as Vangelis was a Greek musician and composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, and orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.WIKIPEDIA

RIP Simon John Preston (4 August 1938 – 13 May 2022) English organist, conductor, and composer.

 

He was sub-organist of Westminster Abbey from 1962 to 1967, and organist of Christ Church, Oxford from 1970 before returning to Westminster as Organist and Master of the Choristers in 1981. He relinquished his Westminster post in 1987, and then led a career as an international concert organist. He also composed works for the organ, the best-known of which is probably his Alleluyas, written in the style of Olivier Messiaen. Recordings of his organ works originally made in the 1960s on the Argo label have recently been re-issued by Eloquence.

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YOUTUBE

RIP WILLIAM BENNETT, flute

 

William Ingham Brooke Bennett OBE (February 7, 1936-May 11th, 2022) was a British flute player.

Bennett was born in London to parents who were both architects. He boarded at Beltane School until he was 16, starting his school life as a seven-year-old during the Second World War. He started playing the recorder at the age of 8 and the flute at 12. He studied the flute in London with Geoffrey Gilbert from the age of 15 and went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama a year later. Instead of doing two years of compulsory national military service after the war, he chose instead to serve three years in the Scots Guards band, which allowed him to continue his studies at the Guildhall School of Music. He went to Paris on a French government scholarship at 21, where he had lessons with Fernand Caratgé and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Later he studied with Marcel Moyse.WIKIPEDIA

Radu Lupu, celebrated Romanian pianist, dies at age 76

 

Radu Lupu CBE (30 November 1945 – 17 April 2022) was a Romanian pianist. He was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of his time. Born in Galați, Romania, Lupu began studying piano at the age of six. Two of his major piano teachers were Florica Musicescu, who also taught Dinu Lipatti, and Heinrich Neuhaus, who also taught Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. From 1966 to 1969, he won three of the world's most prestigious piano competitions: the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1966), the George Enescu International Piano Competition (1967), and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition (1969). These victories launched Lupu's international career, and he appeared with all of the major orchestras and at all of the major festivals and music capitals of the world.

RIP Harrison Birtwistle

 

Sir Harrison Birtwistle CH (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st-century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees.

Boris Brott, (March 14, 1944 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian conductor

 

Boris Brott was the artistic director, conductor and founder of the National Academy Orchestra of Canada. He was hit and killed by a driver in Hamilton on April 5, 2022. and also a noted motivational speaker. He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Covent Garden. He was known for his innovative methods of introducing classical music to new audiences. Over his career, he commissioned, performed, and recorded a wide variety of Canadian works. Brott was the founder and artistic director of the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and the Brott Music Festival, both based in Hamilton, Ontario. He was the founding music director and Conductor Laureate of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, and artistic director and Conductor of the Orchestre classique de Montréal (formerly the McGill Chamber Orchestra). He was a former Principal Youth and Family conductor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, where he conducted family and education concerts

RIP: Mezzo Josephine Veasey, 91.

Josephine Veasey (born 10 July 1930 - 22 February 2022) was a British mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with Wagner and Berlioz roles. WIKIPEDIA

 

The American composer, GEORGE CRUMB known for works such as Black Angels, Vox Balanae and his Sonata for Solo Cello, has passed away aged 92

George Henry Crumb or George Henry Crumb Jr. (October 24, 1929 – February 6, 2022) was an American composer of modern classical and avant-garde music. He was known as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques, which obtain vivid sonorities. Examples include seagull effect for the cello (e.g. Vox Balaenae), metallic vibrato for the piano (e.g. Five Pieces for Piano), and using a mallet to play the strings of a double bass (e.g. Madrigals, Book I), among numerous others. 

Crumb's most renowned works include Ancient Voices of Children (1970), Black Angels (1971), and Makrokosmos III (1974)

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