Maurice Peress (18 March, 1930 – 31 December 2017) was an American orchestra conductor, educator and author.

After serving as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein beginning in 1961, Peress went on to stand as leader of the orchestra in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1962. In 1970, he also became leader for two years of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In 1974, he left Texas to take over the Kansas City Philharmonic, where he remained until 1980.

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Dominic Carmen Frontiere (June 17, 1931 – December 21, 2017) was an American composer, arranger, and jazz accordionist.

Award-winning composer for film and TV -- via Variety. He won the Golden Globe for "The Stunt Man," He did "Hang 'em High," and "Freebie and the Bean." On TV, he created catchy ditties for shows such as "The Outer Limits," "The Rat Patrol," the unintentionally hilarious "Strike Force," and "The Invaders.." He is known for composing the theme and much of the music for the first season of the television series The Outer Limits.

Frontiere died Thursday December 21, 2017 in Tesuque, N.M. He was 86. Frontiere was a fixture on the film- and TV-music scene throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s .

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Žermēna Heine-Vāgnere, Soprano, had died age 94

Žermēna Heine-Vāgnere (23 June 1923 – 7 December 2017) was a Soviet operatic soprano. She was born on 23 June 1923 in Riga, to singer Erna Heine. An uncle, Alberts Verners, was a leading baritone for the Latvian National Opera in the 1930s for which Heine-Vāgnere also performed. She studied under singers Hertas Lūses and Marijas Bolotovas. Heine-Vāgnere began her career in 1950 and appeared in Macbeth as Lady Macbeth, Cavalleria rusticana as Santuca, Otello as Desdemona, Eugene Onegin as Tatyana, Der Ring des Nibelungen as Brynhildr, and Lohengrin as Ortrud. Other performances included roles in Alfrēds Kalniņš's Banuta, Salome, and Turandot. She retired in November 1975, having sang in 39 distinct roles. Heine-Vāgnere was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1969 and also received the Order of the Three Stars, third class. She was married to architect Nikolajs Vīgners and died on 7 December 2017, aged 94. (WIKIPEDIA)

Vienna Opera mourns an American singer...William Blankenship

William Leonard Blankenship (7 March 1928 Gatesville, Texas – 2 December 2017 Vienna, Austria) was an American operatic tenor, music pedagogue at the collegiate level, stage and television actor, and stage director. In Europe, Blankenship sang roles at the opera houses in Vienna (Vienna Volksoper & Vienna State Opera), Stuttgart, Hamburg, Braunschweig (1957–1960), Bern (1960), Mannheim, Brunswick, Munich (from 1965), Berne, Klagenfurt (1956 European debut), Bregenz (1972 as Phoebus in The Fairy-Queen by Henry Purcell). In the United States, he sang with the Santa Fe Opera, San Antonio, San Diego (1968), Dallas Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. He has sung in international festivals in Moscow, Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, and Rio de Janeiro. He performed concerts with major orchestras on radio and television. He was the father of Rebecca Blankenship, an American operatic soprano. (Wikipedia) SLIPPED DISC, Vienna Opera link

William Mayer (November 18, 1925 - November 17, 2017)[1]) was an American composer, best known for his prize-winning opera A Death in the Family.

Mayer was born in New York City, the son of Dorothy (née Ehrich) and John C. Mayer. He entered Yale University in 1944, but his college years were interrupted by military service (he served as a counter-intelligence agent in US-occupied Japan). Upon his discharge he re-entered Yale and graduated in 1949, then trained at the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music, studying with Roger Sessions and Felix Salzer, and later with Otto Luening, Emanuel Balaban and Izler Solomon. The composer has written three stage works in addition to his prize-winning A Death in the Family, and a variety of orchestral, chamber, choral and vocal works. WIKIPEDIA

Carol Neblett (February 1, 1946 – November 23, 2017) was an American operatic soprano.

In 1979, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Senta in The Flying Dutchman, in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production, opposite José van Dam. She sang with the Met until 1993, in such operas as Tosca, La bohème, Un ballo in maschera (with Carlo Bergonzi), Don Giovanni, Manon Lescaut, Falstaff (with Giuseppe Taddei). Neblett was born in Modesto, California and raised in Redondo Beach. She studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1969 she made her operatic debut with the New York City Opera, playing the part of Musetta in Puccini's La bohème. With that company, she continued to sing many leading roles, in Mefistofele (with Norman Treigle), Prince Igor (conducted by Julius Rudel), Faust, Manon, Louise (opposite John Alexander, later Harry Theyard), La traviata, Le coq d'or, Carmen (as Micaëla, with Joy Davidson, staged by Tito Capobianco), The Marriage of Figaro (as the Contessa Almaviva, with Michael Devlin and Susanne Marsee), Don Giovanni (as Donna Elvira), L'incoronazione di Poppea (with Alan Titus as Nerone), Ariadne auf Naxos (directed by Sarah Caldwell), and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt (in Frank Corsaro's production). WIKIPEDIA

Izabella Jadwiga Zielińska (née Ostaszewska; 10 December 1910 – 20 November 2017) was a Polish pianist and pedagogue with one of the longest artistic biographies in Poland, starting back in 1935.

Izabella Jadwiga Ostaszewska was born in Klimkówka, Podkarpackie Voivodeship and attended primary school in Sanok and at the Lyceum of the Ursuline Convent in Lvov, graduating in 1929. She took piano lessons from Klaudia Rylska. In 1930 she went to Belgium to continue her education in the Ursulines Institute at Wavre-Notre-Dame, where she studied French and music. WIKIPEDIA

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Silver-Maned Baritone From Siberia, Dies at 55

Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky PAR (Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Хворосто́вский, 16 October 1962 – 22 November 2017) was a Russian operatic baritone. His operatic debut in the West was at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (1989). In Italy he debuted at La Fenice as Eugene Onegin, a success that sealed his reputation, and made his American operatic debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1993) in La traviata. He subsequently sang at virtually every major opera house, including the Metropolitan Opera (debut 1995), the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Berlin State Opera, La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. He was especially renowned for his portrayal of the title character in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin; The New York Times described him as "born to play the role. Hvorostovsky died on 22 November 2017 in London after a two-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer. WIKIPEDIA

RIP Luis Enriquez Bacalov, Oscar-winning Italian film composer

The Oscar-winning composer known for his work in Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' and 'Django Unchained' was 84. Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine-born Italian composer of film scores. Early on in his career, he composed scores for Spaghetti Western films. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands. Bacalov has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Original Score, winning it in 1996 for Il Postino. Bacalov has composed significant works for chorus and orchestra. Before his death he was the artistic director of the Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, Italy. WIKIPEDIA

Robert De Cormier, Composer And Renowned Music Director, Dies At 95

Robert De Cormier (January 7, 1922 – November 7, 2017) was an American musical conductor, arranger, and director. He arranged music for many singers and groups, including Harry Belafonte and Peter, Paul, and Mary, and worked with Milt Okun. vpr.net

He has directed concerts and recordings for television specials, and was choral director for a television special and recording starring Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, conducted by James Levine. De Cormier was the conductor and leader of The Belafonte Folk Singers during most of its lifetime from 1957 to 1965. He also headed The Robert De Cormier singers, who performed extensively in the mid-1960s and then on and off until the mid-1990s Robert De Cormier was Music Director and Conductor of the New York Choral Society from 1970–1987 and is a Music Director Emeritus. In 1993, De Cormier helped to found the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and remains its director.

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Heather Slade-Lipkin, 26 March 1947 – 16 October 2017,was an English pianist, harpsichordist and teacher.

Heather Slade-Lipkin was born into a musical family from Hoylake, Wirral, and by the age of six had already begun formal piano lessons. She was soon winning many first Prizes at music festivals. She studied under Gordon Green, Clifton Helliwell, Kenneth Gilbert and Huguette Dreyfus. She served as piano lecturer at RNCM and visiting professor of piano at Chetham's School of Music. She won first prizes at the National Piano Competition and the National Harpsichord Competition, and was a finalist in the Paris International Fortepiano Competition. She appeared as a soloist for the CBSO and the BBC.

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Fedor Ivanovich Glushchenko was a Russian conductor and violinist.

August 15, 1944 – 16 October, 2017 He recorded numerous works of Frédéric Chopin, Giya Kancheli, Ippolitov-Ivanov and Aram Khachaturian which were published by Chandos, Hyperion and Olympia Records among other music labels. He is also a frequent participant of such festivals as Bratislava, Moscow, and Brno Music Festivals and a producer of Prokofiev's ballet called Romeo and Juliet which was performed at the Athens Festival in 1994. He also appeared with numerous well-known Russian musicians such as Daniil Shafran, Grigory Sokolov, Vladimir Spivakov and Maxim Vengerov of Russia as well as Gidon Kremer of Latvia and British Martino Tirimo. Between 1977 and 1987 he performed in various European cities such Russian Moscow and Saint Petersburg as well as German Berlin, Düsseldorf and Nurnberg ending with Dublin, Kraków and Sofia. From 1989 to 1994 he performed with various British orchestras such as both London and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic as well as English Chamber Orchestra and The Hallé orchestra in Manchester. From 1990 to 1991 Glushchenko became Istanbul State Opera conductor with which he performed in such European capitals as Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Copenhagen, as well as Brno, in Italy. By 1997 he took charge of the Arturo Toscanini's orchestra and then became a leader of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra as well. WIKIPEDIA

Vincent La Selva (September 17, 1929 – October 9, 2017) Founder of a People's Opera Troupe, Dies at 88

Vincent La Selva died October 9, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an American conductor. Born in Cleveland, who began performing at the age of 8, and by the age of 12, he was conducting student performances. He received his bachelor's degree from the Juilliard School, where he has served on the faculty since 1969. After his graduation from Juilliard, he served in the United States Army, where he conducted the First Army band at Fort Jay on Governor's Island. His idea of presenting free productions began in 1954, when he founded the Xavier Symphony Society, made up of volunteer performers. Gian-Carlo Menotti was so taken by La Selva's performance of The Saint of Bleecker Street, that Menotti had La Selva perform the piece at New York's City Opera. This led to his being hired to conduct the City Opera's orchestra full-time. WIKIPEDIA

Zuzana Růžičková

Zuzana Růžičková (Czech pronunciation: [ˈzuzana ˈruːʒɪt͡ʃkovaː]) (14 January 1927 – 27 September 2017) was an award-winning harpsichordist, whose work garnered acclaim around the world. Born in Czechoslovakia, where she lived her entire life, Růžičková was an interpreter of classical and baroque music. Růžičková was the wife of Czech composer Viktor Kalabis. She was the first harpsichordist to record J. S. Bach's complete works for keyboard. These recordings were made over ten years in the 1960s and 1970s for Erato Records, and were remastered and newly released in 2016 by Warner Records/Erato.As a teenager, Růžičková was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Terezin and Auschwitz, and was then transported to the Bergen-Belsen death camp. She was liberated in April 1945 and returned to Plzeň later that year. Růžičková and Kalabis both refused to join the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia which held power from 1948-89 and were consistently harassed as a result. Růžičková performed across the world for 50 years; she made over 100 records; and taught such prominent musicians as Christopher Hogwood, Ketil Haugsand, Jaroslav Tůma, Monika Knoblochová, Vaclav Luks, and Mahan Esfahani. (WIKIPEDIA)

Caesar Giovannini (February 26, 1925 – September 23, 2017) was an American pianist

He was also a band arranger and composer. Born in Chicago Illinois, Giovannini began piano studies as a child. He attended the Alfred Nobel Grammar School in Chicago and the Lane Technical High School. He graduated from the Chicago Conservatory of Music in 1948 with a Bachelor of Music and a master's degree in composition. During World War II he was appointed pianist for the US Navy Band in Washington, DC. From 1949 to 1956 he joined NBC in Chicago and gained fame through appearances on the Dave Garroway and Ransom Sherman shows. During 1956 and 1957 he was music director for the Kukla, Fran and Ollie television show. In 1958 he joined ABC Chicago. His instrumental compositions for Concert Band include Alla Barocco, El Torero, Overture in B-Flat, Overture to a New Era, and Chorale and Capriccio (with orchestrations by Wayne Robinson). From 1961 to 1976, he played piano on many movie soundtracks including The World of Henry Orient (1964), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Fox (1967), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Shaft's Big Score (1972) and Raid on Entebbe (1976). WIKIPEDIA

Opera star...to Hollywood stardom... Anne Jeffreys, Is Dead at 94

Anne Jeffreys became a member of the New York Municipal Opera Company on a scholarship and sang the lead at Carnegie Hall in such things as La bohème, Traviata, and Pagliacci. Her plans for an operatic career were sidelined when she was cast in a staged musical review, Fun for the Money. Her appearance in that revue led to her being cast in her first movie role, in I Married an Angel (1942), starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Anne Jeffreys (born Anne Carmichael; January 26, 1923 – September 27, 2017) was an American actress and singer.

  WIKIPEDIA | New Yok Times Obit

People's Artist of the USSR , Soprano Tsisana Tatishvili dies

23 September 2017, 79-year old famous opera singer, People's Artist of the USSR, Tsisana Tatishvili, died in Georgia, The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi reports. "The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi expresses deep sorrow and condoles to the family of the singer and the whole musical world," the message reads....http://vestnikkavkaza.net BIOGRAPHY

 VIDEO: Tsisana Tatishvili - Vissi d'arte - Tosca - Puccini

Brenda Lewis, Versatile American Soprano, Is Dead at 96

Brenda Lewis (born 2 March 1921, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - died 17 September 2017, Westport , Conn.) was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, opera director, and music educator. She enjoyed a 20-year-long collaboration with the New York City Opera (NYCO) with whom she notably created roles in several world premieres by American composers; including the title role in Jack Beeson's Lizzie Borden in 1965. She also performed with frequency at the Metropolitan Opera from 1952-1965, and was active as a guest artist with notable opera companies both nationally and internationally. Although she is mainly remembered as an exponent of American operas and musicals, she performed a broad repertoire of works and was particularly celebrated for her portrayals of Marie in Wozzeck, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and the title roles of Carmen and Salome; the latter of which she performed for the inauguration of Houston Grand Opera in 1956. Lewis was also a familiar face to Broadway audiences in operettas, operas, and musicals; appearing in eight productions between 1944 and 1964. Her most successful appearance on Broadway was in the role of Birdie Hubbard in the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Regina in 1949. She later became closely associated with the title role in that work which she performed and recorded on disc with the NYCO in 1958. After retiring from the stage, she worked as a voice teacher and opera director at the Hartt School of Music. She also directed and produced operas for the New Haven Opera Theater from 1963-1973. (Wikipedia)
 

Conductor Siegfried Köhler is dead

Siegfried Köhler (30 July 1923 – 12 September 2017) was a German conductor and composer of classical music, who worked as general music director of opera houses such as Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the Royal Swedish Opera. He conducted premieres of works by Hans Werner Henze and Volker David Kirchner, among others, and revived rarely performed operas. He also composed music for the stage and taught at universities of music in Cologne and Saarbrücken.

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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.

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