RIP French coloratura soprano Mady Mesplé, aged 89.

Mady Mesplé (7 March 1931 – 30 May 2020) was a French opera singer, considered the leading high coloratura soprano of her generation in France, and sometimes heralded as the successor to Mado Robin. She made her debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1956, as Zémire in Grétry's Zémire et Azor. The same year saw her debut at the Opéra-Comique as Lakmé. Her Palais Garnier debut took place in 1958, as Constance in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. Full consecration came at that opera house, in 1960, when she took over from Joan Sutherland in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Other Italian roles included Amina in La sonnambula, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Norina in Don Pasquale and Gilda in Rigoletto. She also sang a few German roles with success, notably the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and a much-acclaimed Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos in Aix-en-Provence in 1966. WIKIPEDIA

Rosalind Elias Dies: Opera Singer Who Made Broadway Debut At 81 Was 90

Rosalind Elias (March 13, 1930 – May 3, 2020) was an American mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera. She was best known for creating the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa in 1958. Elias made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Grimgerde in Wagner's Die Walküre, on February 23, 1954. She sang 687 performances of 54 roles there, including Bersi in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Laura in La Gioconda, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Siebel in Faust, Nancy in Martha, Cherubino and Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Marina in Boris Godunov, Fenena in Nabucco, Azucena in Il trovatore, Amneris in Aida, Charlotte in Werther, and The Witch in Hansel and Gretel. She created the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's opera Vanessa on January 15, 1958, and the role of Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra by the same composer, for the opening of new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, on September 16, 1966. WIKIPEDIA

Cellist Martin Lovett, last surviving member of Amadeus Quartet, dies aged 93

For 40 years, the British cellist performed with the Amadeus Quartet – one of the leading chamber ensembles of the 20th century. Since the end of the Amadeus Quartet, Lovett had been much in demand for performances with various chamber music groups including the Amadeus Ensemble. Lovett OBE (3 March 1927 – 29 April 2020) WIKIPEDIA

Cellist Lynn Harrell has died at age 76

Harrell was born to musician parents in New York City: his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie McAlister Fulton (1909–1962), was a violinist. At the age of nine, he began cello studies. When he was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he studied with Lev Aronson (1912–1988). After attending Denton High School, Harrell studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Leonard Rose and then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Orlando Cole. In 1961, when he was 17, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as part of a Young People's Concert. In 1960, when Harrell was 15, his father died of cancer. In November 1962, when he was 18, his mother died from injuries sustained from a two-vehicle crash while traveling from Denton to Fort Worth with pianist Jean Mainous to perform a recital; she was violinist in residence (faculty) at the University of North Texas College of Music. Just before his mother died, in April 1962, Harrell had withdrawn from Denton High School in his junior year to advance to the semifinals of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. WIKIPEDIA

Renowned Italian soprano Mirella Freni dies at age 84

Mirella Freni (Italian: [miˈrɛlːa ˈfreːni] ; born Mirella Fregni on 27 February 1935) is an Italian soprano whose repertoire includes Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Freni was married for many years to the Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, with whom she performed and recorded. Freni died Sunday, 9 FEB 2020 at her home in Modena, Italy, from a degenerative muscular disease and a series of stokes, according to her manager, Jack Mastroianni of IMG Artists.

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Pianist Peter Serkin dies, age 72

Peter Adolf Serkin (July 24, 1947 – February 1, 2020) was an American classical pianist. He taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Bard College. He was the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene was Peter's mother. Peter was given the middle name Adolf in honor of his grandfather. In 1958, at age 11, Serkin began studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, where his teachers included the Polish pianist Mieczysław Horszowski, the American virtuoso Lee Luvisi, as well as his own father. He graduated in 1965. He also studied with Ernst Oster, flutist Marcel Moyse, and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.

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Othmar Mága (10 June 1929 – 28 January 2020) was a German conductor

Maga was a conductor known internationally, with symphony orchestras including the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark and the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Korea. Among his many recordings are several rarely played concertos for instruments such as horn and double bass, including works of the 20th century.

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RIP BARRY TUCKWELL

Barry Emmanuel Tuckwell AC, OBE (5 March 1931 – 16 January 2020) was an Australian horn player who spent most of his professional life in the United Kingdom and the United States. He is generally considered to have been one of the world's leading horn players. WIKIPEDIA BIO

Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019) was a German tenor

Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019) was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. Schreier made many recordings, especially of Bach's works as both a singer and a conductor, even simultaneously. He recorded many lieder including the song cycles by Schubert and Schumann. He was known for intelligent understanding of texts and their musical expression with intensity. Schreier received awards including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

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Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist,

JERRY HERMAN will be best known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He was nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.


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Dalton Baldwin (December 19, 1931 – December 12, 2019) was an American collaborative pianist.

Baldwin made more than 100 recordings and won numerous prizes, working with outstanding singers such as Gérard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, and Jessye Norman. He visited southern Africa on numerous occasions, accompanying Gérard Souzay three times (in 1958 for the first time) and Elly Ameling twice (in 1973 for the first time). He died on December 12, 2019, aged 87.

NY TIMES OBIT YOU TUBE Master Class

Abbey Henry Simon (January 8, 1920– December 18, 2019) was an American concert pianist.

He was a pupil of Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute of Music and a winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1940. Simon performed to critical acclaim. The critic Harold C. Schonberg of the New York Times once hailed Simon as a "supervirtuoso." Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer wrote, "Simon's recital offered more than a glimpse into the fabled golden age of piano playing... His virtuosity is marked not only by speed, power, lightness and accuracy but also by intricate interplay of voices and lambent colors." Simon toured in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific. He appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Trenton Symphony Orchestra. He died on December 18, 2019, just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday. WIKIPEDIA

Conductor Mariss Jansons has died at age 76

Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 30 November 2019) was a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons and the singer Iraida Jansone. Jansons died in the late evening of November 30, 2019, at his home in St. Petersburg after a longstanding battle with a heart condition. He was 76. He had lived for several years with an implanted defibrillator. Complete bio at Wikipedia

RIP Sir Stephen Cleobury CBE

He Who Sings, Prays Twice. 

A quote from St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
 an early (354-430 AD) theologian. 

It speaks to the power of singing.

Sir Stephen Cleobury CBE (/ˈkliːbəri/ KLEE-bər-ee; 31 December 1948 – 22 November 2019) was an English organist and Director of Music. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers. WIKIPEDIA

Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer.

Zender was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals. As a conductor, he worked at the Theater Freiburg, Theater Bonn, Opernhaus Kiel and Hamburg State Opera, and led the radio orchestra Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. He taught at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. His opera Stephen Climax premiered in 1986 at the Oper Frankfurt, and his third opera, Chief Joseph, premiered in 2005 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

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RIP conductor RAYMOND LEPPARD

Raymond John Leppard CBE (11 August 1927 – 22 October 2019) was a British conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the first major conductors to perform Baroque opera, reviving works by Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli. He conducted operas at major international opera houses and festivals, including the Glyndebourne Festival where he led the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's The Rising of the Moon, the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House. He composed film scores such as Lord of the Flies and Alfred the Great. WIKIPEDIA

Jessye Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist.

A dramatic soprano, Norman was associated in with roles such as Wagner's Sieglinde, Ariadne by Richard Strauss, Gluck's Alceste, Beethoven's Leonore and Cassandra in Les Troyens by Berlioz.[3] and Cassandre. Norman was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and became a Spingarn Medalist in 2013. Apart from receiving several honorary doctorates and other awards, she also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, and was a member of the British Royal Academy of Music. WIKIPEDIA

Paul Badura-Skoda (6 October 1927 – 25 September 2019) was an Austrian pianist.

He was best known for his performances of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, but had an extensive repertoire including many works of Chopin and Ravel. Badura-Skoda was well known for his performances on historical instruments, and owned several (his recording of the complete piano sonatas of Schubert is on five instruments from his private collection). A prolific recording artist, Badura-Skoda made over 200 records, including many duplicates created to highlight the sound of different pianos. For instance, in a 2013 record, he recorded Schubert's last sonata three times on instruments from the 1820s, 1920s, and early 2000s (having already recorded the piece several times before); one of his box sets of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven similarly included three different versions of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata. Indeed, he is the only person to have recorded the complete piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert on both historic and modern instruments. WIKIPEDIA

RIP: CHRISTOPHER ROUSE....(February 15, 1949 – September 21, 2019)

Christopher Chapman Rouse III. American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Rouse was the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

WIKIPEDIA

Roger Boutry (27 February 1932 – 7 September 2019) was a French composer and conductor.

As a conductor, he began his career with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo Orchestra, then conducted the orchestras of the Brussels R.A.T.B., the Rome R.A.I., the Concerts Colonne, Orchestre Lamoureux, Pasdeloup Orchestra. Appointed a professor at the Conservatoire, he taught harmony from 1962 to 1997. His students included Claude Pichaureau, Thierry Escaich, Olivier Chassain, François Weigel, Naji Hakim etc. He also taught choral conducting at the Centre national de préparation au CAEM (Paris) from 1965 to 1970, and from 1963 he was in charge of preparing the writing tests for the recruitment competitions for army music conductors. In January 1973, after a competition on title, he was appointed music director of the Republican Guard and thus conducted the harmony orchestra, symphony orchestra, string orchestra and chamber music ensembles until February 1997.

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