Billy Taylor, age 89

Billy Taylor, an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer who became one of the genre's most ardent advocates through radio, television and the landmark Jazzmobile arts venture, has died at age 89.

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JOHN ALLDIS, choir director, dies at age 81

John Alldis, choir conductor has died at the age of 81 of pneumonia. He founded the professional, 16-voice John Alldis Choir in 1962 and made an early mark with the world premiere performance of Alexander Goehr's "A Little Cantata for Proverbs." Alldis died Monday, 20 December 2010. Subsequent recordings, mainly for Argo, tackled modern composers including Malcolm Williams, Harrison Birtwistle and Richard Rodney Bennett, but the choir repertoire reached back as far as the Renaissance. Choir members who later established solo careers including Philip Langridge, John Shirley-Quirk and Ian Partridge. The Alldis Choir worked with Pink Floyd on the "Atom Heart Mother" album in 1970, and in 1973 on a recording of Ellington's "Third Sacred Concert."
Alldis worked with choral ensembles for the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic, and taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1966 to 1977. He conducted the American Choral Symposium in Manhattan, Kansas, from 1978 to 1987, and was permanent guest conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir from 1985 to 1998.

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Soprano Helen Boatwright dies at 94

Born: November 17, 1916 - Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA, died in upstate New York at 94, 2 DEC 2010.

The American American soprano and teacher, Helen Boatwright (née Strassburger), grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin during the Depression. She began her training with Anna Shram Irving. Later she studied voice with Professor Marion Sims (1892-1980) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio), receiving the bachelor degree in music in 1939 and the master's degree in music in 1943.

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