Howard Reid Cable (December 15, 1920 – March 30, 2016) was a conductor, arranger, music director, composer, and radio and television producer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cable composed and arranged the original theme for the Hockey Night in Canada television broadcast, The Saturday Game which opened the broadcast from 1952 until 1968. His arrangement of Dolores Claman's "The Hockey Theme", which replaced his own composition in 1968, is the standard version, has been called "Canada's Second National Anthem". His Royal Conservatory arrangement of "The Hockey Theme" for piano is one of the best selling pieces of sheet music in Canada. Cable was conductor for the early CBC TV variety programs General Electric Showtime and Mr. Show Business. In addition he conducted and arranged music for various CBC radio and TV programs in the 1960s. From 1971 to 1985 he was host of the program Howard Cable Presents heard on St. Catharines radio station "CHRE-fm", and for most of the years it was the station's highest rated program. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Howard Cable rehearses his Banks of Newfoundland with the Wellington Winds October 2011 This rehearsal was in preparation for our performance of this great piece by Canadian treasure, Howard Cable.
 

Peter Maxwell Davies, British Composer, Dies at 81

 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the prolific English composer long known as an anti-establishment anti-monarchist avant-gardist enfant terrible — but whose work was so renowned that he was named Queen Elizabeth II’s official music master anyway — died on Monday 14 MAR 2016, at his home in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. He was 81. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CH CBE (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor. In 2004 he was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music, he formed a group dedicated to contemporary music, the New Music Manchester, with fellow students Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. His compositions include eight works for the stage, from the monodrama Eight Songs for a Mad King, which shocked the audience in 1969, to Kommilitonen!, first performed in 2011. He wrote ten symphonies, the first from 1973 to 1976, the tenth ("Alla ricerca di Borromini") in 2013. As a conductor, he was Artistic Director of the Dartington International Summer School from 1979 to 1984. From 1992 to 2002 he was associate conductor/composer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he also held with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra." WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: 'The Lighthouse' by Peter Maxwell Davies

Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 – 9 March 2016)

Martin was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle" in reference to his extensive involvement on each of the Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 30 number-one hit singles in the United Kingdom and 23 number-one hits in the United States. Martin was influenced by a range of musical styles, encompassing Cole Porter and John Dankworth. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950, studying piano and oboe. Following his graduation, he worked for the BBC's classical music department, then joined EMI in 1950. Martin produced comedy and novelty records in the early 1950s, working with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, among others. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO:

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor and Early-Music Specialist, Dies at 86

Mr. Harnoncourt, who was also a cellist, founded the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien and worked regularly with many of Europe’s major orchestras. NYTimes OBIT 

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d’Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; 6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Wien, in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt started to conduct opera and concert performances, soon leading renowned international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire then widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. Harnoncourt was also the author of several books, mostly on subjects of performance history and musical aesthetics. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: For decades now Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has been best known for using old instruments and the original notes to make his classical music performances sound as close to the original as possible. Over the last few years he has been working with piano soloist Lang Lang... 

Christine Palmer Whitlock, lyric soprano and former Dallas voice coach, dies at 96

Whitlock toured extensively with the San Carlo Opera and became a leading lady with the New York City Opera. She was offered a contract with the Metropolitan Opera, but decided to stick with her lighter repertoire. She also sang with operas in Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco. She performed lead roles in musical comedies and appeared on television and in clubs across the country. She also taught voice in New York. OBIT

Violist Peter Kamnitzer, 93

Violist Peter Kamnitzer passed away in Israel on Feb. 23, 2016, at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Neora “Sophy” Kamnitzer.
BIO
The LaSalle Quartet was best known for its espousal of the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, and of the European modernists who derived from that tradition, though they also performed standard classical and romantic literature. The Quartet gave the premiere of Witold Lutosławski's String Quartet in Stockholm in 1965. György Ligeti dedicated his Second String Quartet to the group, and they premiered it in Baden-Baden on December 14, 1969. The quartet has been credited with the "Zemlinsky Renaissance," as Zemlinsky remained largely unknown until they performed his works. The quartet won the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for their recording of his four string quartets.

 Member of the LaSalle Quartet was a string quartet active from 1946 to 1987. It was founded by first violinist Walter Levin. The LaSalle's name is attributed to an apartment on LaSalle Street in Manhattan, where some of its members lived during the quartet's inception. The quartet played on a donated set of Amati instruments.

Miguel Ángel Coria Varela (born 24 October 1937 – 24 February 2016)

Spanish composer of classical music. His early work showed affinities to the music of Anton Webern, but he became increasingly influenced by Impressionism. From 1973 he entered his post-modern period where his compositions were marked by "attempts to evoke the spirit of the music of the past, but without literal allusions". In addition to his instrumental music, he also composed an opera, Belisa, which premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in 1992. Coria served as the Administrative Director of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the 1980s and was a co-founder of ALEA, Spain's first laboratory for electronic music. WIKIPEDIA

Eri Klas (7 June 1939 – 26 February 2016) was an Estonian conductor

 Eri Klas was born in Tallinn. Klas mainly worked in Norway, but might be best known for his work leading the defunct Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He premiered Alfred Schnittke's 1st Cello Concerto (Munich Philharmonic, 1986) and Peer Gynt ballet (Hamburg State Opera, 1989), and worked on the diffusion of the Estonian symphonic repertory. He was also active as a pedagogue, holding professorships at the Sibelius Academy (1993–97) and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (1997 until his death), where he received an honorary doctorate. Klas was decorated with the Order of the Lion of Finland (1992, on the occasion of Finland's 75th Independence Day) and the Order of the White Star. He was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 1986, he was named a People's Artist of the USSR. An Estonian lightweight junior boxing champion, he was also a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee. Slipped Disc VIDEO:

Howard Quilling, classical composer with an international reputation is dead

Howard Quilling taught music composition and theory at Bakersfield College for 25 years, retiring in 1996. Despite his long career in education, he managed to compose some 250 pieces of music in his lifetime, his wife estimated. Read more: http://www.celebritiesdeaths.com/2016/02/obituary-howard-quilling-prolific.html#ixzz41aORUZ5c Read more: http://www.celebritiesdeaths.com/2016/02/obituary-howard-quilling-prolific.html#ixzz41aOGGwWS CELEBRITIES DEATHS Bio

 VIDEO: Recording session footage of Howard Quilling's "Diversion" Recorded September 6, 2011 in Olomouc, Czech Republic with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Petr Vronský
 

Otto-Werner Mueller (23 June 1926 – 25 February 2016) was a German-born conductor.

Otto-Werner Mueller was a professor of conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia... Mueller was born in Bensheim, Germany. After being pardoned by the Allied Forces Tribunal in Germany following World War II, he performed in Montreal night clubs with Maurice Chevalier. His first professional work in Canada was as a composer for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, writing music for daytime soap operas. Among his appointments were at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Connecticut, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Victoria School of Music in British Columbia. Some of his notable students include conductors Alan Gilbert, Alasdair Neale, Robert Hart Baker, Gary Fagin, David Hayes, Sarah Ioannides, Paavo Järvi, Jere Lance, Jahja Ling, André Raphel, Kaye George Roberts, Richard Rosenberg, Ignat Solzhenitsyn and Ransom Wilson. He was also an opera repertory coach for mezzo-soprano Huguette Tourangeau and soprano Colette Boky. Mueller died in Charlotte, North Carolina, on 25 February 2016 at the age of 89.

 VIDEO: Daniel Wachs (Piano '98) remembers his first glimpse of Otto-Werner Mueller leading the Curtis orchestra. 

Pascal Bentoiu (22 April 1927 – 21 February 2016) was a Romanian modernist composer.

Bentoiu studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with Mihail Jora and piano with Theophil Demetriescu. He spent three years researching the rhythm and harmony of Romanian folk music at the Bucharest Folklore Institute and then began composing for the stage. His operas are written with dramatic flair and make use of a variety of elements, including folksong, tape, serialism and diatonic qualities. His instrumental and orchestral works also contain a variety of contemporary techniques, and Bentoiu's work is characterized by its color and lyricism. He has edited the sketches of the fourth (1934) and fifth (1941) symphonies of Georges Enescu into shape for performance.[1] (There is a recording of both realizations from a 1998 festival.) Bentoiu died on 21 February 2016 at the age of 88. WIKIPEDIA Pascal Bentoiu (22 April 1927 – 21 February 2016) was a Romanian modernist composer.

 VIDEO: Pascal Bentoiu, Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 12. Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra, Romania. Mihaei Ungureanu - Piano, Valentin Doni - Conductor.
 

Jack Feierman, Conductor and Musical Director, Dies at 91

Jack Feierman, who was musical director for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme and a conductor for Johnny Mathis, Sergio Mendez, Jose Feliciano, the Osmonds, the Lennon Sisters, Frank Sinatra and 
Natalie Cole, died at his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home on Tuesday, January 19. He was 91. He has also played trumpet for numerous TV shows, recordings and movies, besides playing with the Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Billy May bands and was first trumpet with the Count Basie Band. High points of his career included the Frank Sinatra Diamond Jubilee, world tours with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. VARIETY

 VIDEO: Jack Feireman has taught conducting Technique classes at UCLA, the legendary Dick Grove School of Music (where a lot of TV and Film Scoring Composers learned their craft from many legendary teachers such as Clare Fischer, Allyn Ferguson, Rob McConnell, Mundell Lowe, etc.) He has conducted for many television, movie and concert dates. His no nonsense method is used by many of those in the Film, TV and Recording Industry as well as musical directors around the world.

 

Cellist Gwyneth George was 95

Gwyneth George, the cellist, who has died aged 95, was heard in British concert halls during the 1960s and 1970s; she formed a successful partnership with the Argentinian pianist Alberto Portugheis and in 1979 gave the premiere of the Five Nocturnes and Cadenzas that were written for her by the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott. Her only commercial disc, of cello sonatas by Rachmaninov and Shostakovich accompanied by Portugheis for the Unicorn label in 1971. The Welsh cellist Gwyneth George, born in Swansea, was both a scholarship and prize winner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

  Obit | BIO | VIDEOS

Louis Lane (December 25, 1923 – February 15, 2016) was an American conductor.

 Louis Gardner Lane was born in Eagle Pass, Texas. He studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor’s in music degree in 1943, and with Bohuslav Martinů at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer 1946), and with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music (master’s degree in music, 1947). He also studied opera with Sarah Caldwell (1950). He was apprentice conductor to George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1947. He became assistant conductor there 1955-1960 and associate conductor 1960-1970 and resident conductor 1970-1973. A comment made by George Szell to Lane in 1957 about the eccentric pianist Glenn Gould became quite famous: “That nut’s a genius”. Gould requested Lane to accompany his subsequent performances in Cleveland, and Lane’s Canadian conducting debut was made in 1960 at the Vancouver Festival with Gould. Lane’s programming with the Cleveland Orchestra led to his receiving two major awards, the Mahler Medal and the Ditson Conductor's Award. He was music director of the Akron Symphony Orchestra 1959-1983 (later becoming their conductor emeritus) and the Lake Erie Opera Theatre 1964-1972. He was principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and held other positions with that group 1973-1978. He is given credit for developing that orchestra into a full-time group with a 52-week contract. He was co-conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1977-1983. He was also principal guest conductor 1982-1983 and principal conductor 1984-1985 of the National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation based in Johannesburg. more WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Respighi - The Birds...Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - Louis Lane conductor 

Steven Stucky, Composer

Steven Stucky, Composer Who Won a Pulitzer, Dies at 66

 Mr. Stucky was associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as composer in residence for more than 20 years. NYTimes Obit

 Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and composition with Macon Sumerlin. He attended Baylor University and Cornell. Stucky's principal composition teachers were Richard Willis, Robert Palmer, and Karel Husa; his principal conducting teacher was Daniel Sternberg. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: In the 2008-09 season Music Director Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonic are unveiling three brand-new works commissioned by the Orchestra from three composers. Composer Steven Stucky reveals how the limitations put on commissions can spur creativity. Learn about the story behind his Rhapsodies for Orchestra. (Premiering in concerts on September 18-20 23, 2008)
 

Ulf Söderblom (5 February 1930 – 4 February 2016)

Ulf Söderblom was a Finnish conductor and music professor. He was the Principal Conductor of the Finnish National Opera from 1973 to 1993 and was a key figure in the revival of the Savonlinna Opera Festival. A champion of Finnish music, he has conducted the world premieres of several works by Finnish composers including Kokkonen's The Last Temptations and Sallinen's Kullervo and The Horseman. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO:

Leslie Bassett, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer, Dies at 93

Known for his lush sonorities and ecumenical instrumentation, Mr. Basset wrote for orchestras, chamber and choral ensembles and solo instruments. NYTimes Obit | Official website

Leslie Bassett (January 22, 1923 – February 4, 2016) was an American composer of classical music, and the University of Michigan's Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition. Bassett received the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Variations for Orchestra. He studied composition with Homer Keller at the University of Michigan. He was a member of the Gamma Pi chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at California State University-Fresno, 1942. Bassett died at the age of 93 on February 4, 2016 at his home in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

 VIDEO:

Saulius Sondeckis (11 October 1928 – 3 February 2016)

 Saulius Sondeckis was a Lithuanian violinist, conductor, orchestra leader and professor. He founded the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in 1960 and was its artistic director and principal conductor until 2004. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO:

Eva Schorr (28 September 1927 – January 2016) was a German painter and composer.

 Eva Weiler was born in Crailsheim, Württemberg. Her father was a music and art teacher and gave her lessons in both. At the age of eight she began composing, and at the age of 15 won prizes for composition and organ. She studied music in Stuttgart with Johann Nepomuk David and Anton Nowakowski. She also studied with Olivier Messiaen in Darmstadt. She was married to Dieter Schorr, music editor of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten and had two sons and a daughter. She died at the age of 88 January 2016. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Eva Schorr: Retro für Klavier und Orchester, I Memorial (live Mitschnitt) Felix Romankiewicz, Klavier Kammerphilharmonie Stuttgart Simon Schorr, Leitung...

Denise Duval, soprano (23 October 1921 – 25 January 2016)

 Denise Duval (23 October 1921 – 25 January 2016) was a French soprano, best known for her performances in the works of Francis Poulenc. She was born in Paris. Duval created the roles of Elle in La voix humaine, Thérèse in Les mamelles de Tirésias and later excelled in the role of Blanche de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites, although she did not sing in the world premiere of the work at the Teatro alla Scala, when it was performed in Italian translation. Duval made her debut as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana in Bordeaux in 1941, and was a member of the companies of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique from 1947 to 1965, when she retired. She was noted for her portrayals of Debussy's Mélisande and Massenet's Thaïs. She was also noted for her performances of works by Roussel and Ravel. She continued to be closely associated with Poulenc, who in a sense 'discovered' her, and undertook many tours with him towards the end of his life as a duo chansons partnership. Her voice was characterised by a general fragility in strength, an intonational precision marked by a lack of vibrato, and a manner of articulation wherein the delivery of notes lies slightly behind the beat. She was particularly effective in roles where emotion is ironic or neo-classical in nature, but not explicitly anti-romantic. Among her appearances in America was her 1961 Thaïs at the Dallas Opera, conducted by Nicola Rescigno and directed by Franco Zeffirelli. She died in Switzerland in 2016, aged 94. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Denise Duval with Francis Poulenc 1959...


 VIDEO: These sequences show the incomparable French soprano Denise Duval, back in Paris nowadays, remembering Francis Poulenc and teaching how to sing La Voix Humaine, a work that she was the first to perform in 1959....