Ross Barbour of The Four Freshmen has died

Mr. Barbour died at 82 on Saturday, August 20, 2011, at his home in Simi Valley, CA. He was the last of the founding members of the Four Freshmen. The Four Freshmen had a fresh approach to close harmony, influencing the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, the Lettermen, the Manhattan Transfer and other groups. Their sound was characterized by long, lush chords — Mr. Barbour called them “purple chords” — and an improvisational style that made four voices seem like five or six. Each of the singers also played at least one instrument.

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Starlight Symphony conductor Cyril Ornadel, died on June 22 aged 86, wrote the score for the musical Pickwick

Cyril Ornadel, for many years conducted the orchestra for Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the most popular television variety show of the 1950s. Ornadel had enjoyed an earlier hit song with Portrait of My Love. Recorded under duress by the balladeer Matt Monro, who disliked it intensely on first hearing, it went to No 3 in 1960, and has become a modern songbook standard. Cyril Ornadel was born in London on December 2 1924, the son of a dress manufacturer who assumed he would join the family business. When Cyril went his own way, his father effectively had him thrown out of the Royal College of Music by telling it that his son was in breach of the rules by playing piano in a nightclub and dating a fellow student. Ornadel recorded several MGM albums of standards with the studio orchestra known as The Starlight Symphony.

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Forvever Young and the Music of Victor Young
The Best of the British on Broadway

Jose-Luis Garcia, has died aged 67, a Spanish violinist and conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra.

José-Luis Garcia was born in Madrid on February 25 1944, to a Catholic family steeped in music. He began studying the violin at the age of six with his father. After taking first prize in the Sarasate Competition in Pamplona, in 1960, he moved to London to take lessons with his compatriot Antonio Brosa at the Royal College of Music, where he took the Stoutzker Prize, the College’s main violin award.

Jose-Luis Garcia made his Proms debut, aged only 19, in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent (his fellow soloists were Kenneth Sillito, Roy Malan and Ronald Thomas) For more than twenty years he was first violin-conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra, with which he led a very active artistic life and made important recordings, such as the Mozart concertos for violin and orchestra and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
In 1992 he joined the staff of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía (Queen Sofía College of Music) and one year later acceded to the Chair of Violin.

José-Luis Garcia, who died on August 11, 2011 was a great jazz enthusiast, often retiring to Ronnie Scott’s after a London concert. His marriage to Joanna Milholland took place on the day that England won the World Cup in 1966, causing some disruption to the nuptial celebrations as guests endeavoured to keep abreast of the score. She survives him, as do a son and a daughter.

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Nikolai Petrov, a Top Soviet-Era Pianist, Dies at 68

Nikolai Arnoldovich Petrov (14 April 1943 – 3 August 2011)

Petrov suffered a stroke in May while touring in Belarus and had been in the hospital since then.

Nikolai Arnoldovich Petrov was born on April 14, 1943, into a family of musicians. He started touring in the early 1960s and performed with the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony Orchestra and top European orchestras. He made his New York City debut at Carnegie Hall in 1965. But he always regarded the Moscow Conservatory as his main stage.

Petrov was born in Moscow, the son of the cellist Arnold Ferkelman and the grandson of the operatic bass Vasily Rodionovich Petrov, and began learning the piano at the age of three. At the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory his teacher was Tatyana Kestner and in 1961 Petrov entered the class of Yakov Zak at the Conservatory itself.[1][2] He subsequently won second prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas and won second prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels'



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Paul Franke, tenor, died age 93.

Paul Franke, [photo, in makeup] a tenor who was one of the Metropolitan Opera’s most stalwart, ubiquitous and enduring performers, appearing there nearly 2,000 times in four decades, died on July 21, 2011 at his home in Queens. He was 93.

NYTIimes Obit

Amy Winehouse joins 'Club 27'

The impetus for the club's creation were the deaths of Jones, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison- all at the age of 27. Cobain, who died in 1994, was later added by some. Rocker Amy Winehouse has joined the group. With the exception of Joplin, there is controversy surrounding their deaths. According to the book Heavier Than Heaven, when Cobain died, his sister claimed that as a kid he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club. On the fifteenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death, National Public Radio's Robert Smith said, "The deaths of these rock stars at the age of 27 really changed the way we look at rock music." The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll details the history of the phenomenon.

Pierrette Alarie-Simoneau, Canadian Soprano, Dies at 89

Pierrette Alarie-Simoneau, an internationally known Canadian soprano who sang at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1940s, died on July 10, 2011 at her home in Victoria, British Columbia. She was 89. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Alarie was the daughter of a choirmaster, assistant conductor of the Société Canadienne d'opérettes, and of a soprano and actress. She studied voice and acting early and performed on radio at the age of 14, first as an actress and later as a singer of popular music. While studying voice with Victor Issaurel, she made her debut in 1938 at Les Variétés lyriques in the operetta The White Horse Inn. She also sang Marie in La fille du régiment and the lead role in Mireille. On a scholarship she went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to complete her studies with Elisabeth Schumann. Wikipedia

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Cornell MacNeil, American baritone, died He was 88.

Cornell MacNeil, one of the great postwar American baritones, best known for his roles in Verdi operas, died on Friday, July 15, 2011, in Charlottesville, Va. He was 88. (From wikipedia -
He debuted with various companies in the United States from 1953 (including the New York City Opera) and at La Scala and the Metropolitan in 1959. In 1969 he became president of the American Guild of Musical Artists.MacNeil's voice was notable for its huge size and volcanic top notes. Despite some vocal decline in the late 1970s, he maintained a high standard throughout his long career. Two of his most notable roles were the title role in Rigoletto, and Iago in Otello. MacNeil was a regular at the Metropolitan Opera.His debut was on March 21, 1959, as Rigoletto. Rigoletto was also the role he sang the most at the Met, 104 times, including the Met's first telecast of that opera in 1977, in the production by John Dexter. MacNeil was also well-known for the role of Baron Scarpia in Tosca, a role he sang 92 times at the Met between November 2, 1959 and December 5, 1987, which was his last performance with the Met.



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Josef Suk

Josef Suk, a Czech violinist who was known for his warm-toned interpretations of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy and Janacek as well as for his lineage — he was a great-grandson of Dvorak and a grandson of the turn-of-the-century violinist and composer also named Josef Suk — died on Wednesday. He was 81. Josef Suk (8 August 1929 – 6 July 2011) was a Czech violinist, violist, chamber musician and conductor, the grandson of Josef Suk, the composer and violinist. In his home country he carried the title of National Artist.

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