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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Peter Hofman dies at 66

German tenor Peter Hofmann, who became famous for his performances of Richard Wagner operas, died Tuesday, 29 November 2010. He died at a hospital in Wunsiedel in Bavaria. The mass-circulation newspaper Bild also reported Hofmann's death after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Hofmann made his name performing at the annual Bayreuth festival celebrating the music of Richard Wagner. He toured stages across the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

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Buddy Morrow

Buddy Morrow (born Muni Zudekoff, aka Moe Zudekoff; February 8, 1919, New Haven, Connecticut – September 27, 2010) was an American trombonist and bandleader. He is known for his mastery of the upper range which is evident in records such as "The Golden Trombone," as well as his ballad playing. Morrow was once a member of The Tonight Show Band. His early 1950s records such as "Rose, Rose, I Love You" and "Night Train" appeared in the US Billboard charts. "Night Train" reached #23 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1953. He was most recently the leader of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, through September 24, 2010. Morrow died in the morning on September 27, 2010.

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Henryk Gorecki has died at the age of 76

Polish composer Henryk Gorecki has died at the age of 76. He was best known for his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which was composed in 1976 and sold more than a million copies following a 1992 re-release. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈxɛnrɨk mʲiˈkɔwaj ɡuˈrɛtski]) (December 6, 1933 – November 12, 2010) was a composer of contemporary classical music. He studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice between 1955 and 1960. In 1968, he joined the faculty and rose to provost before resigning in 1979. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw.

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Shirley Verrett, died Friday 5 NOV 2010 at 79.

Shirley Verrett, an acclaimed American mezzo-soprano and soprano praised for her blazing intensity during a career that spanned four decades, died  in Ann Arbor, Mich. She was 79.

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Shirley Verrett (May 31, 1931 – November 5, 2010 was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles i.e. soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s and was much admired for her radiant voice, beauty, and great versatility. She was particularly well known for her singing in French and Italian opera, particularly works of Verdi and Donizetti. More Wikipedia Bio

Jerry Bock, dies. He was 81.

Bock composed some of the most memorable shows in Broadway history, including the melodies for "Fiorello!" and "Fiddler on the Roof,".

Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock (November 23, 1928 – November 3, 2010[1]) was an American musical theatre composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1965 musical Fiddler on the Roof with Harnick.

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JOAN SUTHERLAND

Soprano Joan Sutherland, whose purity of tone and brilliant vocal display made her one of the most celebrated opera singers of all time, has died at 83 after a four-decade career that won her praise as the successor to legend Maria Callas. Her family said she died Sunday 10 OCT 2010, at her home near Geneva after a long illness.

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Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution in the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She died in Switzerland on 10 October 2010. One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance as Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "pin point staccatos, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century", while Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven". Her highest note was a high F sharp in altissimo....(Wikipedia Bio)