Pianist Howard Karp

Howard Karp died June 30 2014 at the age of 84. The patriarch of a prolific musical family, he was a professor emeritus of piano at University of Wisconsin. KARP OBIT | Recordings available at Amazon.com

BERNARD ROBERTS, pianist 1933 - 2013

Bernard Roberts (23 July 1933 – 3 November 2013) was an English pianist. He was born in Manchester. His treatment of the cycle of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas has been highly acclaimed. He is also noted for his recordings of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Roberts' recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2, performed on piano, was released in 1999 by Nimbus Records and was well received. Roberts also has recorded Bach's Six Partitas, BWV 825-30, and his French Suites, BWV 812-17. In collaboration with other performers, Roberts released discs of music for one and two pianos by Paul Hindemith and of trios by Frank Bridge. OBITUARY

Paul Horn, a pioneer of New Age Music, Dies at 84

Paul Horn, a flutist and saxophonist whose mellow, meditative recordings helped lay the groundwork for New Age music, died on June 29 at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 84. NYTimes Obit | Official Web Site | Wikipedia Bio:
Paul Horn (March 17, 1930 – June 29, 2014) was an American jazz flautist, and an early pioneer of New Age music. He was known for his innovations on both metal and traditional wooden flutes. Best known of his albums are his "Inside" recordings, which feature airy, echoing sounds created in places of spiritual importance. Horn himself was a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.[3] The series began with Horn sneaking a tape recorder into the Taj Mahal during a trip to India in 1968, (released as Inside) where he was with the Beatles at Rishikesh, and continued later with recordings inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a return to the Taj Mahal in 1989. Horn later made similar recordings in a cathedral, in the canyons of the Southwestern United States with Native American flautist R. Carlos Nakai, and with orcas.
Paul Horn at Amazon.com:

Seymour Barab, 93, Composer of Playful Operas, Dies

Seymour Barab, a composer known for his whimsical chamber operas on such stirring subjects as passion, poison and pizza, died on June 28, 2014 in Manhattan. He was 93. Seymour Barab was born January 9, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American cellist, composer, organist, and pianist. He is known for his fairy tale operas for young audiences, such as Chanticleer and Little Red Riding Hood. He is a longtime member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. NYTimes Obit | Official Web Site |
Barab at Amazon.com

Conductor Franz-Paul Decker (1923-2014)

Maestro Franz-Paul Decker was a conductor of international reputation who was appointed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s first Conductor Laureate in 1995. This unique honour recognised his 40-year association as Guest Conductor, Principal Conductor, and Chief Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and his significant influence on orchestral performance in New Zealand. Franz-Paul Decker had a “love affair” with the NZSO since he first conducted it in 1966, when he was “very positively surprised [by its] highly professional musicians. Decker was born in Cologne, Germany, where he studied at the Hochschule für Musik with Philip Jarnach and Eugen Papst. He made his conducting début at the age of 22 at the Cologne Opera, and four years later was appointed to the Staatsoper Wiesbaden and subsequently to the positions of conductor of the Wiesbaden Symphony Orchestra and Generalmusikdirecktor in Bochum. In 1948, Decker was introduced to the composer Richard Strauss at a card game of whist. Strauss casually mentioned that he had just finished orchestrating four songs he had recently composed (the Four Last Songs). wikipedia

Julius Rudel, Longtime Impresario and Conductor of City Opera, Dies at 93

Julius Rudel, the Austrian-born conductor who raised the New York City Opera to a venturous golden age with highbrow music for the masses and a repertory that, like him, bridged the Old and New Worlds, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93. NYTimes Obit
Julius Rudel (6 March 1921 – 26 June 2014) was an American opera and orchestra conductor. He was born in Vienna and was a student at the city's Academy of Music, but emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1938 after the country was annexed by Germany. He studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. After completing his music studies, he joined the New York City Opera. Wikipedia

Johnny Mann dies at 85; Grammy-winning conductor and arranger

The Johnny Mann Singers performed on his syndicated "Stand Up and Cheer," which ran from 1971 to 1974. As the titled suggested, it was upbeat and included patriotic segments during the era of protests against the Vietnam War. Mann's group was a staple of recordings and TV shows in the 1950s and '60s, he died Wednesday 18 JUN 2014, at his home in Anderson, S.C. He was 85. Mann had been treated for heart problems in recent years. Johnny Mann (August 30, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist. Wikipedia

Horace Silver, 85, Master of Earthy Jazz, Is Dead

Mr. Silver, a pianist, composer and bandleader, wrote and performed music that was both sophisticated and accessible. Horace Silver was born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva, September 2, 1928 and died June 18, 2014. An American jazz pianist and composer. Silver known for his distinctively humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering compositional contributions to hard bop. He was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre. Wikipedia

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, 80, Dies

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (born Rafael Frühbeck; 15 September 1933, Burgos, Spain – 11 June 2014, Pamplona, Spain was a Spanish conductor and composer. As a youth, he studied violin, piano, and composition at the conservatories of Bilbao and Madrid. He first took up conducting while on military service in the Spanish Army. He graduated summa cum laude from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich in conducting and won the Richard Strauss Prize. He subsequently took the professional surname Frühbeck de Burgos as his artist name, which includes the name of his city of birth.Wikipedia | NYTimes Obit

David Nadien, Philharmonic Concertmaster, Is Dead at 88

David Nadien, a violinist whose appointment as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic raised eyebrows because of his thriving career as a studio musician, died on May 28 2014 in Manhattan. He was 88. NYTimes Obit

André Popp, French Composer of ‘Love Is Blue,’ Dies at 90

André Charles Jean Popp (19 February 1924 – 10 May 2014) was a French composer, arranger and screenwriter. 

Andre Popp worked almost exclusively with female singers during this period, preferably the Lolita types, such as Chantal Goya, but also with Françoise Hardy. "Love is Blue", a song Vicky Leandros performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 on behalf of Luxembourg, also recorded by Claudine Longet, became internationally popular. In these recordings, Popp does not sacrifice the sophistication of his 1950s orchestrations, but rather than animate the songs, he seems to set the tone, the mood, painting a colorful picture. Sometimes there are silky, smooth strings; often there is harpsichord and oboe and flute; elsewhere adventurous brassy fanfares; occasionally an ethereal soprano chorus; always some magical musical final touch, like the faint, quavering harmonica in "Manchester et Liverpool". Marie Laforêt's voice fit perfectly in André Popp's 1960s soundscapes and he created more of them for her than for her contemporaries. Popp died at his apartment in the Paris suburb of Puteaux on 10 May 2014. - Wikipedia

Pop crooner of the 50's, Jerry Vale, has died

Jerry Vale, a pop crooner known for his velvety voice and the classic love songs he recorded in the 1950s and early ’60s, died on Sunday, 18 MAY 2014, at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 83.
NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia Jerry Vale (born Genaro Louis Vitaliano; July 8, 1930 – May 18, 2014) was an American singer and actor.

John Shirley-Quirk, a Bass-Baritone and Specialist in Britten, Is Dead at 82

Mr. Shirley-Quirk was a British chemistry teacher who almost by accident became a world-renowned bass-baritone and made 30 appearances at the Met between 1974 and 1991. John Stanton Shirley-Quirk CBE (28 August 1931 – 7 April 2014) was an English bass-baritone. He was a member of the English Opera Group from 1964–76, and was prominent in performing and recording the operatic and vocal works of Benjamin Britten. Wikipedia

Harris Goldsmith, Critic and Classical Pianist, Dies at 78

Mr. Goldsmith, a contributor to High Fidelity magazine, among other publications, was best known for his recordings of the Beethoven sonatas. Harris Goldsmith (1937 – April 2, 2014 in New York City) was an American pianist, music teacher and classical music critic. Goldsmith earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees in music from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Robert Goldsand as a piano student. His early musical influences included conductors Arturo Toscanini and Guido Cantelli. Wikipedia

Mitch Leigh, Who Composed ‘Man of La Mancha,’ Dies at 86

The show, “Man of La Mancha,” opened in New York in 1965 and ran until 1971, a total of 2,328 performances. It won five Tony Awards, including best composer and lyricist (Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion) and best musical. Richard Kiley originated the dual role of Don Quixote, a doddering gentleman knight with a grand imagination, and Quixote’s creator, the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. The principal song, "The Impossible Dream", became a standard. The musical has played in many other countries around the world, with productions in Dutch, French (translation by Jacques Brel), German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Icelandic, Gujarati, Uzbek, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swahili, Finnish, Ukrainian and nine distinctly different dialects of the Spanish language... NYTimes Obit | 

Mitch Leigh (born Irwin Michnick; January 30, 1928 – March 16, 2014) was an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man of La Mancha. Leigh also composed the jingle: "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee". He established Music Makers, Inc., in 1957 as a radio and television commercial production house and was its creative director....
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Richard Hayman, conductor, arranger, harmonica virtuoso Dies at 93

Richard Hayman, a Pops Concert Figure in St. Louis and Boston, Dies at 93. NYTimes Obit

Richard Hayman (March 27, 1920 – February 5, 2014) was an American arranger, harmonica player and conductor. Hayman started out as a player and arranger for the Borrah Minnevitch Harmonica Rascals before becoming an arranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during the early 1940s. He did arrangements (often uncredited) for the MGM films Girl Crazy, Meet Me in St. Louis and Thousands Cheer. From 1945-1950, he was musical director for the Vaughn Monroe Orchestra. In the 1950s and 60s, Hayman recorded a series of albums for Mercury Records. His 1957 outing "Havana In Hi-Fi" was first in the label's pop music stereo LP series (SR 60000). Hayman is most famous for having been the principal arranger at the Boston Pops Orchestra for over 30 years where his award-winning arrangements are still used today. He occasionally guest-conducted there, and when Arthur Fiedler had a time conflict with his job as pops conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he recommended Hayman for the post....Wikipedia

Gerd Albrecht, German Conductor Is Dead at 78

NYTimes By MARGALIT FOX

Mr. Albrecht, a German, had a volatile run as the first non-Czech to lead the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Gerd Albrecht (19 July 1935 – 2 February 2014) was a German conductor. He was a first-prize winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors at age 22. His first post was as a repetiteur at the Stuttgart State Opera. Later, he became Senior Kapellmeister at the Mainz Municipal Theatre, and Generalmusikdirektor in Lübeck. He also held posts at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Hamburg State Opera....Wikipedia

Riziero "Riz" Ortolani (25 March 1926 – 23 January 2014)

In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a well-known Italian jazz band. He wrote his first score for Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti's pseudo-documentary Mondo Cane, whose main title-song More earned him a Grammy and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best Song. The success of the soundtrack of Mondo Cane led Ortolani to score films in England and the United States such as The 7th Dawn (1964), The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), The Glory Guys (1965) and The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966). Another renowned track was his main-title for the movie O Cangaceiro (1970).

Ortolani scored all or parts of over 200 films, including German westerns like Apache's Last Battle (Old Shatterhand, 1964) and a long series of Italian giallos, spaghetti westerns, Eurospy films, Exploitation films and mondo films. Notable films scored by Ortolani include Il Sorpasso (1962), Io ho paura (1977), Castle of Blood (1964), Anzio (1968), The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968), Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso (1972), Africa Addio (1966), Addio Zio Tom (1971), House on the Edge of the Park (1980), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and the first series of La Piovra (1984). More wikipedia Bio

Influential MSU composition professor H. Owen Reed dies at 103

Montana composer David Masl

anka, now a grey eminence in the music world at 70, was still searching for his musical voice in the 1970s when he came to Michigan State University. His life changed when he found a kindly but demanding teacher with a gentle Missouri accent, H. Owen Reed. “It’s one of those huge accidents of fate,” Maslanka said. “He was monumental in my growth as a composer.” Reed died Jan. 6 in Athens, Ga., at age 103. He taught at MSU from 1939 to 1976 and remained a vital presence almost until his death.

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Claudio Abbado 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014

Claudio Abbado, a conductor whose refined interpretations of a large symphonic and operatic repertory won him the directorships of several of the world’s most revered musical institutions — including La Scala, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic — died on Monday, January 20, 2014. He was 80.NYTimes Obit
Warm, loving and generous in his relationships, Claudio Abbado inspires tremendous devotion and loyalty in his loved ones.

Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian: [ˈklaudjo abˈbaːdo]; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1989 to 2002. He was a Senator for life in the Senate of Italy from 2013 to 2014...Wikipedia