Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88

Cellist Janos Starker has died at 88, ending a life and career that saw him renowned for his skills as a soloist, his prodigious work with orchestras, and his commitment to teaching. Starker was born in Budapest in 1924; his path to becoming an international star included surviving life in a Nazi labor camp. NPR | Wikipedia

Don Shirley, Pianist With His Own Genre, Dies at 86

Donald Shirley, a pianist and composer who gathered classical music with jazz and other forms of popular music under a singular umbrella after being discouraged from pursuing a classical career because he was black, died on April 6 at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. Don Shirley (born January 29, 1927)was an American-Jamaican jazz pianist and composer. Shirley's prodigious piano skills were recognized early and Shirley began his career as a composer and virtuoso performer at a young age. Don Shirley's music is hard to categorize. It is possible to say that as an arranger-composer he treats each piece of music as a new composition, not just an arrangement. Don plays Standards in a non-standard way. He is a virtuoso, playing everything from show tunes, to ballads, to his personal arrangements of Negro spirituals, to jazz, and always with the overtone of a classically-trained musician who has utmost respect for the music he is playing. NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia

George Beverly Shea, Billy Graham’s Singer, Dies at 104

Bev Shea, left with Billy Graham

George Beverly Shea, who escaped a life of toil in an insurance office to become a Grammy-winning gospel singer — and who was known in particular for his long association with the Rev. Billy Graham — 
died on Tuesday [16 APR 2013] in Asheville, N.C. 
He was 104.

NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia

RECORDINGS: George Beverly Shea

David Burge, an American pianist and composer known as an indefatigable champion of 20th-century music, died on April 1 in Warwick, R.I. He was 83.

A longtime faculty member of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, Mr. Burge (his surname rhymes with “verge”) performed from the 1950s onward on some of the world’s most renowned concert stages. From his earliest appearances, his recital programs — novel, ambitious and technically rigorous — consisted almost entirely of contemporary works. 

NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia

London Symphony conductor Colin Davis dies at 85

 Colin Davis, the former principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and one of Britain's elder statesmen of classical music, has died at 85.

The orchestra said Davis died Sunday after a short illness.

One of the best-known figures in British music, Davis worked with the London symphony for more than half a century.

He first conducted for the LSO in 1959 and took the principal conductor post in 1995, serving until 2006 before becoming president.

The orchestra said Davis had been "at the head of the LSO family for many years."

Wikipedia

Maria Tallchief, Who Dazzled at the Ballet, Dies at 88

Maria Tallchief, a daughter of an Oklahoma oil family who grew up on an Indian reservation, found her way to New York and became one of the most brilliant American ballerinas of the 20th century, died on Thursday in Chicago. She was 88. NYTimes Obit

Elizabeth Maria Tallchief (January 24, 1925 - April 11, 2013) was the first Native American to become prima ballerina of a major company. From 1942 to 1947 she danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but she is even better known for her time with the New York City Ballet, from its founding in 1947 through 1965. Known professionally as Maria Tallchief, her family called her Betty Marie. Betty learned the Osage traditions from her grandmother, Eliza Bigheart Tallchief. Maria was the sister of notable ballerina Marjorie Tallchief. We support Wikipedia.

Risë Stevens, 99, Stalwart at the Met for Decades in Carmen Role, Is Dead

NYTimes Obit 
Risë Stevens (June 11, 1913 – March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano.
Wikipedia

Fran Warren, Singer in Big-Band Era, Dies at 87

Fran Warren, one of the last surviving singing stars of the big-band era, died at her home in Brookfield, Conn., on March 4, 2013...her 87th birthday.
NYTimes Obit 
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Frances Wolfe (March 4, 1926 – March 4, 2013), known by her stage name, Fran Warren, was an American popular singer....Wikipedia

Rafael Puyana, Famed Harpsichordist, Dies at 81

Rafael Puyana, an internationally acclaimed Colombian harpsichordist who was among the last disciples of Wanda Landowska, died on March 1 in Paris. He was 81.

NYTimes | Wikipedia

Marie-Claire Alain, Master of the Organ, Dies at 86

Marie-Claire Alain (August 10, 1926 – February 26, 2013) Marie-Claire Alain was a French organist and organ teacher best known for her prolific recording career. She was particularly known for her ability to perform substantial works entirely from memory. Wikipedia | NYTimes

Pianist Van Cliburn dies, bone cancer, 78 years old

Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died Wednesday morning,February 27, 2013, in Fort Worth. He was 78.

NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia

Wolfgang Sawallisch, Conductor, Dies at 89

German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch died Friday evening 22 February 2013, at age 89 at home in Grassau, Germany, near Munich. His death was announced by the Bavarian State Opera, a company with which he was long associated. The pinnacle of his long career came not in his native country, however, but with a surprising decade-long tenure as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra that began when he was 70 years old. NPR

Sawallisch, a conductor steeped in German tradition, gained a new lease on life at the Philadelphia Orchestra.NYTimes ObitWolfgang Sawallisch (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ zaˈvalɪʃ]; 26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. Wikipedia

Remembering Pioneering American Conductor, Poet And Anime Inspiration James DePreist

James Anderson DePreist (November 21, 1936 – February 8, 2013) was an American conductor. DePreist was one of the first African-Americanconductors on the world stage. He was the Director Emeritus of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School and Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony at the time of his death. James DePreist, 76, the distinguished conductor and educator, died Friday, Feb. 9, at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., of complications from a heart attack last spring, his agent said. Born in Philadelphia, the nephew of the famed contralto Marian Anderson, Mr. DePreist became early in his career something that is still a rarity today: an African American conductor leading top-tier orchestras. More | Wikipedia

Stephen Simon, Conductor Who Led a Handel Revival, Dies at 75

Stephen Simon, a conductor who in the 1970s and afterward helped spirit the Handel revival into being in the United States, died on January 20, 2013, in Manhattan. He was 75 and lived in Manhattan.


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Official Web Site
Handel Society

Patty Andrews, Singer With Her Sisters, Is Dead at 94

Patty Andrews, the last of the Andrews Sisters, the jaunty vocal trio whose immensely popular music became part of the patriotic fabric of World War II America, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94. NYTimes
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews (February 16, 1918 – January 30, 2013). Throughout their long career, the sisters sold well over 75 million records (the last official count released by MCA Records in the mid-1970s). Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of rhythm and blues or jump blues. The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been covered by entertainers such as Bette Midler, The Puppini Sisters, Christina Aguilera and The Three Belles. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. Wikipedia

Death of Patti Page, the singin' rage

Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), known by her professional name Patti Page, was an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and sold over 100 million records. Her nickname was The Singin' Rage (a phrase commonly followed by "Miss Patti Page").

More Wikipedia Bio | NBC News

British film composer Richard Rodney Bennett dies at 76

Richard Rodney Bennett, a British-born composer for film, ballet, opera and the concert hall, died Christmas Eve, 24 DEC 2012, in New York. He was 76. Bennett, who had made his home in New York for the past 20 years, moved between the jazz and classical worlds throughout his career, but was best known for his film scores. More | Wikipedia Bio

Galina Vishnevskaya, Soprano and Dissident, Dies at 86

Galina Vishnevskaya, an electrifying soprano who endured repression and exile as one of the postwar Soviet Union’s most prominent political dissidents, died on Monday, 10 December 2012,  in Moscow. She was 86. NYTimes Obit
Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 singing operetta. After a year studying with Vera Nikolayevna Garina, she won a competition held by the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (with Rachmaninoff's song "O, Do Not Grieve" and Verdi's aria "O patria mia" from Aida) in 1952. The next year, she became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre. On 9 May 1960, she made her first appearance in Sarajevo at the National Theatre, as Aida. In 1961, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida; the following year she made her debut at the Royal Opera House with the same role. For her La Scala debut in 1964, she sang Liù in Turandot, opposite Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli. Wikipedia Bio

Lisa Della Casa, Opera Singer, Dies at 93

Lisa Della Casa, the Swiss soprano who combined an outstanding voice, stunning beauty and exceptional stage presence to become one of the foremost interpreters of Richard Strauss, died on Monday, 10 December 2012. in Muensterlingen, Switzerland. She was 93. NYTimes Obit
Born in Burgdorf, Switzerland to an Italian-Swiss father Francesco Della Casa and a Bavarian-born mother Margarete Mueller, she began studying singing at age 15 at the Zurich Conservatory, and made her operatic debut as the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Solothurn-Biel Municipal Theater in 1940. She joined the ensemble of Zurich Municipal Opera House in 1943 (staying there until 1950) and sang various parts, from the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute to Dorabella in Così fan tutte. Later she sang Fiordiligi. In 1949, she married Yugoslavian-born journalist and violinist Dragan Debeljevic, with whom she had a daughter, Vesna. Wikipedia Bio

Charles Rosen dies at 85; pianist

Pianist, classical music scholar and thinker Charles Rosen died in New York Sunday at age 85 following a battle with cancer. A prolific author, essayist and Guggenheim Award winner, Rosen published two staple books on classical music, 1971's The Classical Style and 1995's The Romantic Generation.
LATimes Obit

Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927 – December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music.More form Wikipedia