Hawaii's gift to good music, Jack de Mello has died at the age of 102

Composer, arranger, producer and recording artist Jack de Mello, who created an expansive new synthesis of Hawaiian melodies and lush, contemporary orchestral music, died Saturday in Las Vegas. He was 102. During his prolific career, de Mello recorded close to 160 albums of all types of music, including almost 500 Hawaiian songs. He recorded at top studios around the world and “gave Hawaiian music a new identity,” according to a statement from his family. Born Nov. 15, 1916, in Oakland, Calif., de Mello showed early musical talent. He studied music and music theory at the Bickett Military Band School in San Francisco and was only 9 years old when he began playing the trumpet. The family recalled his stories about piling into a Model T Ford with his brother to go to his lessons, which also required travel by ferry boat and train since the Bay Bridge had yet to be built. As a young musician in San Francisco, de Mello joined the staff band at the CBS radio network and later served as a musical director at ABC and NBC. He entered the Army as a bandmaster at Camp McQuaide in California. As musical director of Mutual Network top-rated radio show, “Beat The Villian,” de Mello hired the Society Band led by Joe Reichman. They went on to perform together at major U.S. hotels including the Waldorf Astoria and Roosevelt in New York. During a run at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, they accepted an invitation to reopen the Royal Hawaiian hotel in 1947. The hotel had been used exclusively by the U.S. Navy during World War II. From...HONOLULU STAR ADVERTISER

The soprano Heather Harper, who has died aged 88, was one of the best loved and most respected singers of her generation.

MAY 8, 1930 - APRIL 22, 2019

Her recordings include Peter Grimes in both audio and video formats, as well as the War Requiem (Chandos). She took part in 1957 performances (conducted by Antony Hopkins) of sacred works by Michel-Richard Delalande, recorded in LP format on the L'Oiseau-Lyre label; these pieces had never previously found their way to disc. Superb renditions in the 1970s (conducted by Sir Georg Solti) are now available, notably Mahler's 8th Symphony with Watts, Minton, Popp, Kollo, Shirley-Quirk and Talvela (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1972, Decca) and Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten with Dernesch, Hesse, King and Berry (Covent Garden, 1976, Fiori). More recently, a live concert performance of Britten's Our Hunting Fathers has been issued on the London Philharmonic Orchestra's own label. References WIKIPEDIA | GUARDIAN OBIT

Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 1927 – 8 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer

The Austrian conductor and composer who promoted contemporary music in opera and concert. Raised in Argentina, he first worked in Vienna and was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Royal Swedish Opera. He conducted notable world premieres such as György Ligeti's Requièm, Karlheinz Stockhausen's Carré, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten and his Requiem für einen jungen Dichter. He directed the Frankfurt Opera from 1977 to 1987, installing more contemporary operas, winning stage directors such as Hans Neuenfels and Ruth Berghaus, and reviving operas such as Schreker's Die Gezeichneten. During his era, the company became one of the leading operas. Gielen was also principal conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra (1969–1973), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–1986) and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–1999). As a composer, he worked in the tradition of the Second Viennese School, often setting modern literature to music. His works were premiered with performers such as Joan Carroll, Siegfried Palm, Aloys Kontarsky and the LaSalle Quartet.

Peter Hurford OBE (22 November 1930 – 3 March 2019) was a British organist and composer.

He is best known for his interpretations of Bach, having recorded the complete Bach organ works for Decca and BBC Radio 3. His expertise also encompasses recordings of the Romantic literature for organ, performances notable for attention to stylistic detail. His playing style is noted for clean articulation, beauty of expression, and a sense of proper tempo. He suffered a minor stroke in 1997, but recovered enough to resume his performing career seven months later. In 2008 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, hence he retired formally from performing in 2009. ("Bach Notes", London Bach Society, Autumn 2013). Peter Hurford died on 3 March 2019, aged 88. WIKIPEDIA

Joseph Flummerfelt, a Force Behind Mighty Choruses, Dies at 82

Flummerfelt attended DePauw University for his first studies in organ and church music, graduating in 1958. He followed this with a master's degree in choral conducting from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music (1962) and a doctorate from the University of Illinois (1971); he also studied under Nadia Boulanger, Julius Herford, and Elaine Brown. In addition to serving for 23 years as maestro di coro for the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, Flummerfelt has been director of choral activities for the American spin-off Spoleto USA in Charleston, SC, since 1977. He made his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1988 and serves as chorusmaster for that ensemble. He has also founded and continues to direct the New York Choral Artists. He taught at the University of Illinois (1963-1964), DePauw University (1964-1968), and Florida State University (1968-1971), before joining the faculty at Westminster Choir College (beginning in 1971).

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André George Previn, KBE (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019)[1] was a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer.

André George Previn, KBE (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. Previn won four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement). Previn died on February 28, 2019 at home in Manhattan at the age of 89.

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Hilde Zadek, Mainstay of the Vienna State Opera, Dies at 101

Hildegard Zadek (15 December 1917 – 21 February 2019) was a German operatic soprano. She was Kammersängerin at the Vienna State Opera. Zadek made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni on 26 November 1952. Beside Donna Anna (4 performances), at the Met she sang Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2 performances), Elsa in Lohengrin (1 performance), and the title role of Aida (1 performance on 14 January 1953, her last at the Met). She also appeared at the San Francisco Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Beginning in 1967, she taught at the Vienna Music Academy, and gave masterclasses. Her last performance at the Vienna State Opera was as Gerhilde in Die Walküre on 3 January 1971, and the same year she retired from the stage. Wikipedia

Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer

Dominick Argento was known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and a lyrical use of twelve-tone writing, though none of Argento's music approaches the experimental avant-garde fashions of the post-World War II era. As a student in the 1950s, Argento divided his time between the United States and Italy.
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Hans Stadlmair (3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer.

Hans Stadlmair conducted the Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, many in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, including premieres. His compositions include works of all genres except opera. His Miró, an Entrada for orchestra, premiered at the Gasteig in Munich in 2011, with Christian Thielemann conducting the Münchner Philharmoniker.


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Sanford Sylvan (December 19, 1953 – January 29, 2019) was an American baritone.

Sylvan received five Grammy nominations for his participation these recordings: Charles Fussell's Symphony for Baritone and Orchestra "Wilde" (2009); Adams's The Wound-Dresser (1990), which was written for Sylvan; Fauré's L'horizon chimérique (1999); Beloved That Pilgrimage (1992), a compilation of songs by Theodore Chandler, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland; and the soundtrack for the Penny Woolcock film of Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer (2003). Of his performance in that film, chosen for the 2003 Sundance Festival, Anthony Tommasini wrote that Sylvan "should have received an Oscar nomination for his courageous portrayal of the murder victim Leon Klinghoffer". He premiered a number of works by Adams, Philip Glass, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Harbison and Christopher Rouse, including Rouse's Requiem in 2007.

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Michel Legrand, Oscar-winning 'Windmills of Your Mind' composer, dead at 86

MICHEL LEGRAND was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, he wrote over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many memorable songs. He is best known for his often haunting, jazz-tinged film music. His celebrated scores for the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). WIKIPEDIA

Theo Adam (1 August 1926 – 10 January 2019)

German operatic bass-baritone and bass singer who had international career in opera, concert and recital from 1949. He was a member of the Staatsoper Dresden for his entire career, and sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1952 to 1980. He particularly excelled in portraying roles by Richard Wagner, especially Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, which he also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, among others. In concert, he was a much admired Bach singer and also drew acclaim for his interpretation of the title character of Mendelssohn's Elijah. He was a voice teacher at the Musikhochschule Dresden. WIKIPEDIA

Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 - January 15, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian.

Notable for starring in Broadway and film musicals, her characters typically radiate a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect. Carol Channing also studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. She began as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, most recently playing Dolly in 1995. Channing was nominated for her first Tony Award in 1956 for The Vamp followed by a nomination in 1961 for Show Girl. She received her fourth Tony Award nomination for the musical Lorelei in 1974.

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Francis Albert Lai ( 26 April 1932 – 7 November 2018) was a French composer, noted for his film scores.

While in his twenties, Lai left home and went to Paris, where he became part of the lively Montmartre music scene. In 1965 he met filmmaker Claude Lelouch and was hired to help write the score for the film A Man and a Woman. Released in 1966, the film was a major international success, earning a number of Academy Awards. The young Lai received a Golden Globe Award nomination for "Best Original Score". This initial success brought more opportunities to work for the film industry both in his native France, where he continued to work with Lelouch on scores to films such as Vivre pour vivre (1967), Un homme qui me plaît (1969), Le voyou (1970) and La bonne année (1973), as well as in Great Britain and the United States. He is known for his support of Mireille Mathieu in many compositions and recordings. In 1970 he wrote the score for director René Clément's film, Rider on the Rain ("Le passager de la pluie"). It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc in September 1971. In 1970 Lai won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Love Story. In the United States, the soundtrack album went to No. 2 in the Billboard album charts and the film's theme, "Where Do I Begin", was a hit single with lyrics by Carl Sigman for traditional pop singer Andy Williams. The song would also be recorded successfully by Lai himself, with a full orchestra, and by Henry Mancini and Shirley Bassey. Lai's "Love Story" theme was heard in the 1978 Love Story sequel titled Oliver's Story, although the main score was composed by Lee Holdridge. His movie scores include films as diverse as Mayerling, Three into Two Won't Go, International Velvet, Édith et Marcel, and Michael Winner films such as I'll Never Forget What's'isname and Hannibal Brooks. Lai has also had success with music written for softcore erotic films like Emmanuelle 2 (1975) and Bilitis (1977). He earned high praise for the latter film's score and its sound-track sold over a million copies throughout the world. His composition "Aujourd'hui C'est Toi" (Today It's You) is probably best known in the UK as the theme music for the long-running BBC television current affairs documentary series Panorama. In a career spanning forty years, Lai also wrote music for television programs and alone or in collaboration with others has composed music for more than one hundred films and has personally written more than six hundred songs. Notably, he penned the music for the Perry Como hit "I Think of You" (lyrics by Rod McKuen). He died on 7 November 2018, aged 86. WIKIPEDIA

Richard Gill (conductor)

Richard James Gill AO (4 November 1941 – 28 October 2018) was an Australian conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic works. He was known as a music educator and for his advocacy for music education of children. 

Richard_Gill_(conductor)

Randolph Henning Hokanson (June 22, 1915 – October 18, 2018) was an American pianist

Randolph Henning Hokanson was an American pianist and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was noted for his recordings of Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn, and gave over 100 performances, including the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas. WIKIPEDIA

Montserrat Caballé (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018)

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Montserrat Caballé, born Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch, was a Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Wikipedia

 

Stelvio Cipriani

Cipriani became prolific in the Italian film world and was awarded a Nastro d'Argento for Best Score for The Anonymous Venetian (1970).

One of Cipriani's most famous scores is from the 1973 film La polizia sta a guardare (The Great Kidnapping). The main theme was recycled by Cipriani in 1977 for the score to Tentacoli, and was brought to the public's attention again in 2007 when it was featured in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.

Cipriani's scores for the films of the "La Polizia..." series were different arrangements over the same theme. Some of those themes were used in the soundtrack of the couple Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani's first feature Amer. 

wiki/Stelvio_Cipriani

Claudio Scimone (23 December 1934 – 6 September 2018) was an Italian conductor.

Claudio Scimone

Claudio Scimone was born in Padua, Italy and studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara.He has established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He has revived many baroque and renaissance works. His discography includes over 150 titles, and he has won numerous prizes, including the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros.

Claudio Scimone was the founder of I Solisti Veneti (the ensemble with which most of his recordings have been made) and at the time of his death was the honorary conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal.

With the Philharmonia of London, he conducted the first recording of Muzio Clementi’s Symphonies.

Scimone led the world to discover the importance of Vivaldi’s theatrical works, beginning with the first modern performance of Orlando furioso, featuring Marilyn Horne and Victoria de Los Angeles.

In the reborn Fenice Claudio Scimone directed the first modern revival of the Venetian version of Maometto secondo by Rossini.

He also gave the modern premieres of Moses in Egypt and Oedipus at Colonus by Rossini, and The Last Judgement by Salieri.

Claudio Scimone was awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (the highest ranking honour of the Republic). He was also awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Padua. *from Wikipedia.

Guy Fallot (1927 – 25 july 2018) was a French cellist

Guy Fallot's father, Paul Fallot – a geologist and professor at the Collège de France – was also a great music lover and played the violin. The mother of Guy Fallot was a recognized amateur organist and held the organ of the cathedral of Nancy. Guy Fallot naturally began to learn the piano with his mother. She was very close to Guy Ropartz, hence the choice of the first name Guy for his son. He entered the Lausanne Conservatory at the age of 9, and obtained the virtuosity prize at 14. One year later, with his sister Monique, he won the first prize at the Geneva Sonata Competition. At the Conservatoire de Paris, he obtained the first prize in the class of Paul Bazelaire in 1946. He taught mainly at the Geneva and Lausanne conservatories, where he trained many pupils. He pursued an international career, interrupted for some time because of a hand problem, and played all over the world, in sonata with pianist Rita Possa, also his accompanist for his classes at the conservatory. Fallot died in Lausanne in 2018, aged 91...WIKIPEDIA