Derek David Bourgeois (16 October 1941–6 September 2017) was an English composer.

Derek Bourgeois was born in Kingston upon Thames in 1941. After receiving his university education at Magdalene College, Cambridge(honours degree and doctorate), Bourgeois spent two years at the Royal College of Music, studying composition with Herbert Howells and conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. From 1971 to 1984, Bourgeois was a lecturer in music at Bristol University, and director of the National Youth Orchestra from 1984 to 1993. In 1980 he began conducting the Sun Life Band (now the Stanshawe Band of Bristol), which was his introduction to brass bands. In 1994 Bourgeois was appointed Director of Music at St Paul's Girls School, London, a position previously held by a number of noted composers, including Gustav Holst and Herbert Howells. After retiring from this post in 2002 he and his wife settled in Mallorca.

WIKIPEDIA

RIP: Pianist Aloys Kontarsky (1931 - 2017)

Aloys (14 May 1931 – 22 August 2017) [right] and Alfons (9 October 1932 – 5 May 2010) Kontarsky. They were German duo-pianist brothers who were associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They had an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also performed the standard repertoire and they sometimes played separately. They were occasionally joined by their younger brother Bernhard in performances of pieces for three pianos. After suffering a stroke in 1983, Aloys retired from performing. WIKIPEDIA

Patrick Thomas AM MBE (1 June 1932 – 1 August 2017) was an Australian conductor.

For a period of almost 35 years he conducted hundreds of performances across Australia in just about every centre where the various state symphony orchestras ventured, and introduced music to virtually a whole generation of young Australians through his popular and distinctive schools concerts. He held a succession of important posts with four of Australia's major ABC orchestras and the specially created position of ABC Federal Conductor-in-Residence as well as conducting the Australian Opera and the Australian Ballet. He also conducted the ABC's radio chorus, the Adelaide Singers. Overseas, he appeared in 12 countries as Guest Conductor of such orchestras as the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Polish National Radio and Television Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, CBC Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Orchestra, and many others in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and South Africa. Other facets of his diverse career included those of concert, radio and television presenter and interviewer....Wikipedia.

Glen Campbell, 'Rhinestone Cowboy' Singer, Dead at 81

Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, television host, and actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including Rhinestone Cowboy, and for hosting a music and comedy variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television, from January 1969 through June 1972. During his 50 years in show business, Campbell released more than 70 albums. He sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album. He placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Campbell's hits include his recordings of John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind"; Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", and "Galveston"; Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy"; and Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights". Campbell made history in 1967 by winning four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop.

  VIDEO: CBS...

Barbara Cook dead: Broadway actress of "Music Man" dies aged 89

Barbara Cook (October 25, 1927 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made numerous recordings.

  WIKIPEDIA | Independent

VIDEO: Music Man Medley 

Paul Angerer (May 16, 1927 – July 26, 2017) Austrian violist, conductor, composer and radio presenter.

Angerer studied music theory and composition with Friedrich Reidinger and Alfred Uhl, and conducting with Hans Swarowsky. He performed in the viola section of Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande early in his career and was viola soloist with the Wiener Symphoniker from 1953 to 1957. Angerer then began to conduct the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras in Bonn and Ulm. From 1967 to 1972 he was principal conductor of the Salzburg Opera Theater (Salzburger Landestheater) and led the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester from 1971 to 1982. In 1982, Angerer began conducting the Concilium Musicum Wien and held a teaching position at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 1982 to 1992. Angerer was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Music in 1953 for his Musik für Viola allein and in 2001, he received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class. Paul Angerer's compositional style is influenced by that of Paul Hindemith. His works are published by Verlag Doblinger, Universal Edition, C. Haslinger and Editions M. Reift. (Wikipedia)

 VIDEO: A Bouquet of Old Vienna Dances (Paul Angerer conducts Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven/Schubert/Lanner)

Thomas Füri (22 July 1947, Bern, Switzerland – 23 July 2017, Bern) Swiss violinist

Swiss violinist, and a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik Basel. He studied with his father Erich Füri and with Max Rostal at the Hochschule für Musik Bern. He completed his studies with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School in New York. From 1973 till 1980 he was leader in Koblenz, Lausanne and Basel. From 1979 till 1993 he led the Camerata Bern. From 1980 till 1991 he taught at the academies in Winterthur and Zürich. In 1985 he joined I Salonisti, appearing in the 1997 film Titanic. In 1993 he was awarded the Musikpreis des Kantons Bern. From 2000 he was a member of the Aria Quartet. Thomas Füri played on a 1761 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.

  OBIT Slipped Disc

Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini (7 October 1929 in Bologna – 11 July 2017 in Bologna), was an Italian organist, harpsichordist, musicologist and composer.

Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini studied organ, piano and composition with Riccardo Nielsen at the Conservatory in Bologna and at the Conservatory in Paris with Marcel Dupré. He graduated at the University of Padua in 1951 with a dissertation on the texts of the sacred cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach; he taught organ at Bologna Conservatory where he also held the post of librarian; he became lecturer and later professor of organ at the Monteverdi Conservatory in Bolzano. He was appointed to teach music history at the University of Parma and in 1971 he was appointed as Professor and as Director of the Institute of Musicology at the University of Freiburg (Switzerland). He was guest professor at various universities in the U.S.A.; he was widely active as a concert organist in Italy and abroad. Together with Liuwe Tamminga he was appointed as organist at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna. Together with Renato Lunelli he founded the journal "L'organo" in 1960, continued together with Oscar Mischiati and still running today. He taught regularly at the summer courses at Haarlem, Netherlands and at the course the "Academy of Organ Music" at Pistoia. WIKIPEDIA | VIDEO Interview
Mostra a cura di Betta Frigieri, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Paggeria di Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo (27 marzo 2004)

 

Kyla Greenbaum (1922 – 15 June 2017) was a British pianist and composer.

Greenbaum was the pianist on the recording of The Rio Grande by Constant Lambert. In the book Constant Lambert: Beyond the Rio Grande, Lambert told Greenbaum "that he preferred her playing to (Hamilton) Harty's, even though a prominent wrong note went uncorrected and was only digitally rectified years later for one of its CD transfers." Greenbaum recorded Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

  WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: The Rio Grande-Satchwell Sitwell-Constant Lambert-Gladys Ripley(1949)

RIP...harpsichordist and conductor, Ludger Rémy. He was 68.

Ludger Rémy (4 February 1949 – 21 June 2017) was a German harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist. In 1994 he founded the orchestra Les Amis de Philippe, named after Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. From 1995 to 1999 he directed the Telemann Chamber Orchestra of Michaelstein. He taught at the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein. On 23 September 2005 he revived the opera Didone abbandonata of Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, successful in 1724, in a shortened concert version, performed at the Schloss Elisabethenburg in Meiningen by Les Amis de Philippe. Between 1995 and 2007 he served as a juror at the International Competition for harpsichord and Fortepiano at the Festival van Vlaanderen in Brugge. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: J.F.Fasch Overture Symphonies, Ludger Rémy
 

US violinist Paul Zukofsky has died aged 73

Paul Zukofsky (October 22, 1943 – June 6, 2017) Violinist and conductor. Best known for his work with contemporary composers such as Phillip Glass and John Cage; his is Einstein's violin on the original recording of Glass's "Einstein on the Beach." Paul Zukofsky was born October 22, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. His father was the American Objectivist poet Louis Zukofsky and his mother was Celia Thaew Zukofsky. Paul was of Lithuanian Jewish heritage through his father. His mother, Celia, was a Jewish musician and composer. Zukofsky studied violin with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School of Music. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1965.
WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Paul Zukofsky & Gilbert Kalish, Performers

The conductor Sir Jeffrey Tate has died

The pianist and conductor Jeffrey Tate has died. He was rehearsing the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy, when he suffered an attack. He was 74 years of age.

Sir Jeffrey Philip Tate CBE (28 April 1943 – 2 June 2017) was an English conductor. Tate's international conducting début was with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1979. In 1985, he was appointed the first principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra. He was named to the position of principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden effective in September 1986, the first person in the House's history to have that title.[3] He was principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1995. In 2005, he was appointed music director of the San Carlo Theatre of Naples, and served in the post through 2010.

  WIKIPEDIA

Harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka is dead

The Polish musician, naturalized French, passionaria of contemporary music, died at 77 years. Elisabeth Chojnacka (born Elżbieta Chojnacka; 10 September 1939 – 28 May 2017) was a Polish harpsichordist living in France. She was one of the world's foremost harpsichordists specializing in the performance of contemporary harpsichord music.

  WIKIPEDIA VIDEO:

Jiri Belohlavek, Conductor and Leading Interpreter of Czech Music, Dies at 71

Mr. Belohlavek led the Czech Philharmonic and was associated with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, specializing in the music of Dvorak, Janacek and other countrymen. NYTimes Obit Jiří Bělohlávek CBE (Czech pronunciation: [jɪr̝iː bjɛloɦlaːvɛk]; 24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017)[1] was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music, and became chief composer of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two different occasions during a combined span of seven years (1990-92, 2012-17). He also served a six-year tenure as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006-2012.[2] He gained international renown and repute for his performances of the works of Czech composers like Antonin Dvorak and Bohuslav Martinu, and was credited as "the most profound proponent of Czech orchestral music" by critics. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO:

Claudia Hellmann (25 November 1923 – 24 May 2017) was a German contralto with the Stuttgart Opera.

Hellmann frequently performed the contralto part in the recordings of Bach's cantatas, his Christmas Oratorio and his Easter Oratorio with the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra and Fritz Werner. She recorded Bach's Magnificat and his Missa in F major with Karl Ristenpart, the Chorale Philippe Caillard, the Saar Radio Chamber Orchestra, Edith Selig, Georg Jelden, Jakob Stämpfli and Maurice André (trumpet) in 1964. In 1963, she recorded the part of Ismene in Orff's Antigonae with Inge Borkh as Antigonae, Keith Engen as Chorführer, Hetty Plümacheras Eurydice, Fritz Uhl as Haemon, and Ernst Haefliger as Tiresias, Ferdinand Leitner conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. She died in Eichwalde. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Bruckner: Mass No.3 In F Minor, WAB 28 - 1. Kyrie · Maria Stader · Claudia Hellmann · Ernst Haefliger · Kim Borg · Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks · Eugen Jochum · Bavarian Radio Chorus...

Barbara Smith Conrad (August 11, 1937 - May 22, 2017)

American operatic mezzo-soprano of international acclaim. In 1957, she became the focus of a racial controversy revolving around her role in a student opera at The University of Texas at Austin. Pressure from the Texas Legislature forced her removal from the cast, and her story received national media coverage. Conrad went on to perform with Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Teatro Nacional in Venezuela, and many others.

  WIKIPEDIA                                                   

Russian cellist Natalia Shakhovskaya has died, aged 81

Natalia Shakhovskaya (September 27, 1935 – May 20, 2017) was a Russian cellist. She studied cello at the Gnessin School of Music and later at the Moscow Conservatory under the tutorship of Semyon Kozolupov. She finished her education at the music conservatory with Mstislav Rostropovich. Shakovskaya won some of the most important cello competitions in Russia and abroad, including; the First Prize and Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky competition in 1962. Shakhovskaya pursued an active career as a soloist in recitals and with the best orchestras and conductors worldwide. She taught at the Moscow Conservatory (as Head of the Cello Chair and Director of Double Bass Department) from 1974 to 1995, after Rostropovich relinquished the post upon his departure from Russia.WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: A. Glazunov. Minstrel Song. Spanish Serenade

William Brohn, Who Made Broadway Orchestras Sing, Dies at 84

William David "Bill" Brohn (March 30, 1933 – May 11, 2017) was an American arranger and orchestrator, best known for his scores of musicals such as Miss Saigon, Ragtime and Wicked. He won the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for Ragtime and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations three times. His work was eclectic, orchestrating many different styles of music. His modern scores are known for their keyboard writing for the orchestra pit, and their balance between acoustic and synthesised sounds. Brohn was one of the few theatre orchestrators to use the E-bow attachment to the electric guitar, which can be heard in his orchestrations for Wicked and Mary Poppins.

 VIDEO: Nick Hutson and Jonathan Cohen sit down to talk to one of musical theatre's most respected orchestrators...

Brain tumour claims US composer, Daniel Brewbaker, 66

The death of Daniel Brewbaker has been reported by friends and family. Daniel, 66, had been suffering for two years from a brain tumour. A composers of great gifts, charm and grace, he was one of the first US composers to be performed in Russia by Valery Gergiev. Based in New York, he spent a long period in Europe working with Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio and Henri Dutilleux.

  Slippeddisc.com

VIDEO: now by Daniel Brewbaker - text by e.e.cummings... Concord SIngers Concert 05/19/2012 Michael Sanflippo, Director Caroline Parody

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