Famous Curtis Institute Of Music Alumni
Voting Rules
People on this list must have gone to Curtis Institute of Music and be of some renown.
List of famous alumni from Curtis Institute of Music, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Curtis Institute of Music include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Curtis Institute of Music alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Curtis Institute of Music are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from Curtis Institute of Music.
List features graduates like Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber and more!
This list answers the questions “Which famous people went to Curtis Institute of Music?” and “Which celebrities are Curtis Institute of Music alumni?”- Born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Leonard Bernstein grew to become one of the most influential figures in classical music. A prodigy by any measure, Bernstein's prowess extended beyond his roles as a conductor and pianist, establishing him as an esteemed composer, author, and lecturer as well. His musical genius shone brightly in the orchestral and theatrical worlds, with legendary compositions like West Side Story. Bernstein's journey toward becoming an eminent musician began at Boston Latin School, where he first discovered an affinity for music. His talent was further nurtured and honed when he attended Harvard University, studying music theory and composition. Upon graduation, his passion led him to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied conducting. Bernstein then joined the ranks of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as an assistant conductor in 1943, ultimately becoming its music director in 1958. Over the span of an illustrious career, Bernstein composed music for opera, ballet, orchestral performances, choruses, piano, and even film scores. Works like Candide, On the Town, and Chichester Psalms exhibit the range of his compositional skills. Beyond his musical accomplishments, Bernstein was known for his charismatic persona and prodigious ability to educate and inspire others about music. His contributions to television series like Omnibus and Young People's Concerts are testaments to his enduring legacy as both a musician and educator. Despite his passing on October 14, 1990, Bernstein's influence continues to resonate in the world of music, serving as an inspiration for generations of musicians and music lovers alike.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1918-1990)
- Birthplace: Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA
- Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; music critic Donal Henahan stated, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim."His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee. At the time of Barber's death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1910-1981)
- Birthplace: West Chester, Pennsylvania
- Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is an American composer and diarist. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra.
- Age: 101
- Birthplace: Richmond, Wayne Township, Indiana
- Gian Carlo Menotti (, Italian: [dʒaŋ ˈkarlo meˈnɔtti]; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, along with over two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. He won a Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Consul (1950) and for The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955). He founded the noted Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto in 1958 and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA, in 1977. In 1986 he commenced a Melbourne Spoleto Festival in Australia, but he withdrew after three years. Menotti died on February 1, 2007, at the age of 95 in a hospital in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where he had a home. He was buried in East Lothian, Scotland.
- Age: Dec. at 95 (1911-2007)
- Birthplace: Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy
- George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras. Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument."Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, "We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review."
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1897-1970)
- Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
Jennifer Higdon
Musician, ComposerJennifer Elaine Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of classical music and composition teacher. She has received many awards including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and two Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition - the first in 2009 for her Percussion Concerto, the second in 2018 for her Viola Concerto. The latter was on an album of her music, Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto, and Oboe Concerto, that won the 2018 Grammy for Best Classical Compendium. She was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.- Age: 62
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905 – January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his Off-Broadway translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic.
- Age: Dec. at 58 (1905-1964)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Lang Lang (Chinese: 郎朗; pinyin: Láng Lǎng; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese concert pianist who has performed with leading orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Canada, in addition to his native China.
- Age: 42
- Birthplace: Shenyang, China
- Daron Aric Hagen ( HAH-gən; born November 4, 1961, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.
- Age: 63
- Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor.
- Age: Dec. at 86 (1922-2009)
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Lara St. John
ViolinistLara St. John (born April 15, 1971) is a Canadian violinist.- Age: 53
- Birthplace: London, Canada
- Alan Gilbert may refer to: Alan Gilbert (conductor) (born 1967), American conductor and violinist Alan Gilbert (Australian academic) (1944–2010), Australian historian and academic administrator Alan Gilbert (American academic), American professor Charles Allan Gilbert (1873–1929), American illustrator
- Age: 57
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. She has performed throughout the world both as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She has also built a reputation as a champion of contemporary music. Several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach.
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- Gilles Apap (born 21 May 1963) is a French classical violinist. Born in Béjaïa, Algeria, he was raised in Nice, France. In 1985 he won first prize in the contemporary music category at the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. He served as concertmaster with the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra for 10 years, but has since focused on his career as a soloist with orchestras around the world. A virtuosic violinist, Gilles is also known for his interpretations of traditional music from Eastern Europe to America, such as gypsy, Irish, swing or bluegrass. He recorded three CDs in the 1990s with Sony Classical Records, then formed his own company, Apapaziz Productions. Since 1999, Apapaziz has recorded eight Gilles Apap CDs.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Algeria
Joseph Harry Silverstein (March 21, 1932 – November 21, 2015) was an American violinist and conductor. Known to family, friends and colleagues as "Joey", Silverstein was born in Detroit. As a youth, Silverstein studied with his father, Bernard Silverstein, who was a public school music teacher. He began studies at the Curtis Institute of Music at age 12. His teachers included Efrem Zimbalist, D.C. Dounis, William Primrose, Josef Gingold, and Mischa Mischakoff. Although he never formally completed his high school education, Silverstein did graduate from Curtis in 1950. Following completion of his studies at Curtis, Silverstein played as a section musician with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Denver Symphony Orchestra.In 1955, Silverstein joined the second violin section of Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), the youngest musician in the orchestra at the time. In 1959, he won a silver medal at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, and in 1960 he won the Naumburg Award from the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. In 1962, Silverstein became BSO concertmaster, a position he held for 22 years. He was appointed assistant conductor of the BSO in 1971. Whilst in Boston, Silverstein performed with other local ensembles such as the Civic Symphony and Banchetto Musicale. He also taught at the New England Conservatory, Yale University, and Boston University as well as serving on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center. Silverstein left the BSO in 1984. Silverstein was music director of the Utah Symphony from 1983 to 1998. He served as acting music director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra in 2001 until the orchestra's demise in 2003. He was the artistic advisor to the Portland Symphony Orchestra for the 2007-2008 season. In addition to teaching in Boston, he served as a professor of violin at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1969, he became a faculty artist at the Sarasota Music Festival. Silverstein performed on a 1742 Guarneri del Gesù. Silverstein married Adrienne Shufro in 1954. Their marriage produced two daughters, Bunny and Deborah, and a son, Marc. His widow, three children, and four grandchildren survive him.- Age: 92
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Shuler Paul Hensley (born March 6, 1967) is an American singer and actor.
- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Georgia, USA, Atlanta
- Jaime Laredo (born June 7, 1941 in Cochabamba, Bolivia) is a violinist and conductor. Currently the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, he began his musical career when he was five years old. In 1948 he came to North America and took lessons from Antonio de Grassi. He also studied with Frank Houser before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, to study under Josef Gingold in 1953. He studied with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music until his graduation. From 1960 to 1974 he was married to the pianist Ruth Laredo. Laredo is currently a professor at the renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He served as artistic advisor for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conducted the orchestra on April 18, 2009, in a program featuring his wife, the cellist Sharon Robinson. He was scheduled to again conduct the orchestra for two programs during the 2009–10 season. Laredo and Robinson were also featured soloists in a special concert conducted by Andrew Constantine, who became the Philharmonic's music director in July 2009. His Carnegie Hall recital in October 1960 was much praised, and helped to launch his career. The next year, he played at Royal Albert Hall in London. Afterwards, he has played with many major European and American orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, The Children's Orchestra Society and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He also plays viola, and has recorded piano quartets with Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax. In addition, he collaborated with pianist Glenn Gould. He is the violinist of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, along with pianist Joseph Kalichstein and cellist Sharon Robinson. He has been the conductor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999. The Cleveland Institute of Music announced the appointment of Laredo and wife Sharon Robinson to the string faculty in 2012.
- Age: 83
- Birthplace: Cochabamba, Bolivia
- David C. Sampson (born January 26, 1951, Charlottesville, Virginia) is an American contemporary classical composer.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Charlottesville, Virginia
- Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (born January 10, 1961) is an Italian and American classical violinist and teacher.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Scott St. John
ViolistScott St. John (born 4 December 1969 in London, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian violinist and violist. He was a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (departing December, 2013) and on faculty at Stanford University, where he taught violin and chamber music.- Age: 55
- Birthplace: Canada
Paavo Järvi
Conductor, Music DirectorPaavo Järvi (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈpɑːvo ˈjærvi]; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian conductor. Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to Liilia Järvi and the Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also musicians. After leaving Estonia, the family settled in the United States. Järvi studied privately with Leonid Grin in Philadelphia, at the Curtis Institute of Music with Max Rudolf and Otto-Werner Mueller, and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein. From 1994 to 1997, Järvi was principal conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. From 1995 to 1998, he shared the title of principal conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis. Järvi was music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2011. The orchestra made a number of recordings for the Telarc label during Järvi's tenure. In May 2011, he was named the orchestra's Music Director Laureate. Since 2004, he has been the Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Bremen and an Artistic Advisor to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Järvi became the Principal Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and served in the post until 2014. In 2010, he became Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, concluding his tenure in 2016, the same year in which he was named Artist of the Year by both Gramophone and Diapason magazines. He has also been appointed Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012 by the French Ministry of Culture and was presented the Sibelius Medal in 2015 for his contribution to bringing greater awareness of the Finnish composer's music to French audiences. Paavo Järvi is the founder and Artistic Director of both the Pärnu Music Festival and the Estonian Festival Orchestra, an ensemble which brings together leading Estonian musicians with soloists from Europe’s top-ranking orchestras. In June 2012, the NHK Symphony Orchestra named Järvi its next chief conductor, beginning in the 2015–2016 season, with an initial contract of three years, which was extended a further three years to 2021. In May 2017, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich announced the appointment of Järvi as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of five years. Järvi first guest-conducted the Tonhalle Orchestra in 2009, and returned in December 2016.Järvi has recorded for such labels as RCA, Deutsche Grammophon, PENTATONE, Telarc, ECM, BIS and Virgin Records. His Virgin Classics recording of Sibelius Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Male Choir and Ellerhein Girls Choir won a Grammy Award for "Best Choral Performance". Järvi has two daughters, Lea and Ingrid, from his past marriage to the violinist Tatiana Berman. Järvi was featured in the documentary Maestro, directed by David Donnelly. Järvi became an American citizen in 1985.- Age: 62
- Birthplace: Estonia, Tallinn
- Leila Bronia Josefowicz (born October 20, 1977) is an American-Canadian classical violinist.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Mississauga, Canada
- Jorge Bolet (November 15, 1914 – October 16, 1990) was a Cuban-born American virtuoso pianist and teacher. Among his teachers were Leopold Godowsky, and Moriz Rosenthal – the latter an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1914-1990)
- Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
Juan Diego Flórez
Opera Singer, ActorJuan Diego Flórez (born January 13, 1973) is a Peruvian operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in bel canto operas. On June 4, 2007, he received his country's highest decoration, the Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Sun of Peru.- Age: 52
- Birthplace: Peru, Lima
- Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator.
- Age: 96
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Jessica Linnebach (born 1983 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian classical violinist. She is a founding member of the Zukerman Chamber Players, as well as the Associate Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Linnebach plays the Taft Stradivarius (1700) on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.Since her solo debut at the age of seven, Linnebach has performed with top orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. At the age of ten, Linnebach was one of the youngest students admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree. At Curtis, Linnebach studied with Aaron Rosand and Jaime Laredo. Following Curtis, she completed a Masters of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Pinchas Zukerman. Linnebach has twice won the Grand Prize at the Canadian Music Competition, has won major prizes at the Young Concert Artists and Philadelphia Orchestra competitions, and in 2000 won the Sylva M. Gelber Music Foundation Award presented to the most gifted Canadian musician under the age of 30. In 2000, Linnebach was the soloist for the National Arts Centre Orchestra's historic tour of Europe and the Middle East, led by Pinchas Zukerman. As a well-renowned chamber musician, Linnebach has performed with artists who include Leon Fleischer, Gary Graffman, Lynn Harrell, Jaime Laredo, and Michael Tree, at venues that include the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Santa Fe, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Aspen, and Banff festivals. As a member of the Zukerman Chamber Players, she has undertaken tours of the U.S., Canada, South America, and Europe in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, and has recorded chamber music by Brahms, Dvorak, and Mozart under the Altara label.
- Age: 42
- Birthplace: Edmonton, Canada
- Teo Gheorghiu is a Swiss-Canadian pianist and actor, born on August 12, 1992 in Männedorf in Canton of Zürich, Switzerland from Romanian and Canadian parents.
- Age: 32
- Birthplace: Maennedorf, Switzerland
- Jacob Lateiner, (May 31, 1928 – December 12, 2010) was a Cuban-American pianist. He was actually born on March 31, 1928, but his father did not get around to registering his birth until May 31 the same year. He was the brother of violinist Isidor Lateiner. The pianist Jacob Lateiner studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Isabelle Vengerova. He showed what turned out to be a lifelong interest in chamber music, studying with the violist William Primrose and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. He also studied privately with Arnold Schoenberg in 1950, and subsequently collected Schoenbergiana since that period. His notable students include Danae Kara, Michael Endres, Bruce Brubaker, Lowell Liebermann, Robert Taub, Laura Karpman, Ernest So, and Jarred Dunn (Lateiner's last student). See: List of music students by teacher: K to M#Jacob Lateiner.
- Age: Dec. at 82 (1928-2010)
- Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
- Pius Cheung (Chinese name: 張鈞量) is a percussionist and composer, called " a young Chinese-Canadian virtuoso," by the New York Times. He began teaching in the music performance percussion program at the University of Oregon in 2011. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, his Artist Diploma from The Boston Conservatory, and his Doctorate from the University of Michigan. Associate Professor and Chair of the Percussion Area at the University of Oregon.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Hong Kong, China
- Reid Anderson (born 15 October 1970) is a bassist and composer from Minnesota. He is best known for his work in The Bad Plus with pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King. The Bad Plus has been together since 1989. In 2003, Columbia Records released the band's major label debut, These Are the Vistas. Anderson attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music.
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jennifer Koh
ViolinistJennifer Koh is an American violinist, born to Korean parents in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.Jennifer Koh earned a B.A. in English Literature from Oberlin College, as well as a Performance Diploma from the attached Oberlin Conservatory. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute and was the top medalist in the 1994 Tchaikovsky Competition. That year she also won a scholarship from the Concert Artists Guild. She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1995.Ms. Koh has performed extensively with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra and is an advocate of music education for children. She is lauded for her programs of Bach. She performed and recorded a series "Bach and Beyond" which has received high critical praise. She frequently premieres and records contemporary music of composers like Kaija Saariaho, John Zorn, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.In 2012, Koh was a featured performer in the revival of the Philip Glass/Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach, portraying the role of Einstein.- Age: 49
- Birthplace: Illinois
Ken Cowan
OrganistKen Cowan (born 1974) is a Canadian organist. A native of Thorold, Ontario, he has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and has made numerous recordings, most on the JAV label. Cowan is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music (Bachelor of Music) and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Master of Music and Artist Diploma). He has held positions at Saint Bartholomew's Church, Saint James Episcopal Church, the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in New York City, Saint Clement's Church, Philadelphia, and Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where he served as Assistant Professor of Organ and Coordinator of Organ and Sacred Music, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also been on the roster of Associate Organists for the famous Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia. Cowan has been a featured recitalist at three national conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife Lisa Shihoten, where he serves as a faculty member at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.- Age: 51
- Yefim "Fima" Naumovich Bronfman (Russian: Ефим Наумович Бронфман; born April 10, 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- Adrian Anantawan is a Canadian violinist. Anantawan, who began studying violin at age nine, has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and at the White House. He is an alumnus of the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Canada, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Yale University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Growing up in the neighbourhood of Clarkson, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, he attended St. Christopher's Elementary School, and is a member of the St. Christopher's Church Parish. He is currently a member of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation and is Director of Music at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston.
- Age: 39
- Birthplace: Mississauga, Canada
- Although he will always be remembered for composing the haunting music in the first two films in director Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" trilogy, during his nearly 50 year career Nino Rota was one of the most prolific Italian film composers. A classically trained composer, Rota's career began in earnest in the early 1940s and lasted until his death in 1979. During that period he wrote 176 film scores, including several for the celebrated Italian film director Federico Fellini. In addition to the first two "Godfather" films, the second of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1975, some of Rota's more notable works included "The White Sheik" (1952), "La Strada" (1954), and "8 1/2" (1963), all three of which were directed by Fellini. By the time of his death at age 67 in 1979, Rota, who also wrote several operas, ballets and orchestral competitions in addition to his film work, was recognized as one of the most important composers of the twentieth century
- Age: Dec. at 67 (1911-1979)
- Birthplace: Milan, Lombardy, Italy
- John Langstaff (December 24, 1920 – December 13, 2005), a concert baritone, and early music revivalist was the founder of the Northeast United States tradition of the Christmas Revels, as well as a respected musician and educator. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Juilliard. Langstaff's lifelong project, the Christmas Revels, began in 1957 with a show in New York. In 1971 began the longest-running Revels, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Revels, an eclectic mix of medieval and modern music and dance (primarily English in basis), involves the audience and the community in a continuation of pagan and older Christian traditions. Revels shows, now spread over the northeastern USA and the world, draw on local talent. Morris dancing, mummers, bagpipers and large choruses of men, women and children celebrate the turning of the Winter Solstice in a cheerful fashion. Throughout his adult life, Langstaff was a dedicated music educator. In 1955 he became the music director at The Potomac School in Washington, DC, and later taught at Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He wrote twenty-five books, including the Caldecott Medal-winning Frog Went A-Courtin'. He hosted the BBC-TV Schools programme Making Music for five years, and produced a series of videos called Making Music with John Langstaff for parents and teachers. He also published songbooks, teacher's guides, and production guides for the Revels. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, Jack, as he was addressed by some, was associated with the Young Audiences organization in the United States, which creates and presents performance arts in educational settings. Langstaff was Executive Director of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, and collaborated with many cultural, educational, health and community organizations in the Greater Boston area and New England. Langstaff's recording career was varied and long. Beginning with English traditional music in the 1950s, he continued with the founding of Revels Records, recording primarily children's and traditional music. Several of his early recordings were made in London with noted producer George Martin. In 1943 Langstaff married Diane Hamilton. They divorced in 1947. He was later married to Nancy Trowbridge, a pianist. On May 17, 2006 David Nath's documentary film To Drive The Dark Away, which chronicles Langstaff's life and work with the Christmas Revels, had its world premiere in Arlington, Massachusetts.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1920-2005)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
John Relyea
Opera SingerJohn Relyea (born 1972 in Toronto) is a Canadian bass-baritone opera singer and winner of the 2003 Richard Tucker Award.He was born in 1972 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Gary Relyea, one of Canada's well-known opera singers, and a native Estonian Anna Tamm-Relyea, also a professional singer.John Relyea is a 1998 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He studied with his father, with renowned opera bass Jerome Hines, and with bass-baritone Edward Zambara. John Relyea has performed with major symphony companies across the country, such as the New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in addition to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.His roles include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Giorgio in I Puritani, Escamillo in Carmen, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Colline in La Bohème, Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Caspar in Der Freischütz, Banquo in Macbeth, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito, Mephistopheles in La damnation de Faust, and Gessler in Guillaume Tell, and appears on the Metropolitan Opera's DVD presentations of Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both released by Deutsche Grammophon.John Relyea is married with two sons. He resides in Rhode Island.- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Paul Jacobs (born 1977) is an American organist. He is the first organist to receive a Grammy Award. Jacobs is currently the chair of the Juilliard School's organ department.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Washington, Pennsylvania
- Harold Gomberg (November 30, 1916 – September 7, 1985) was the principal (first or solo) oboist of the New York Philharmonic from 1943 through 1977.Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Harold and his brother Ralph studied with Marcel Tabuteau, considered the father of American oboe playing, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Prior to joining the New York Philharmonic, Gomberg held positions with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony. He was a longtime member of the faculty of the Juilliard School, and recorded several albums of solo oboe repertoire during his long and very distinguished career. Harold Gomberg was also an avid painter, and was married to the harpist/composer Margret Brill. He died of a heart attack in Capri.
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1916-1985)
- Shmuel Ashkenasi (Hebrew: שמואל אשכנזי; born January 11, 1941) is an Israeli violinist and teacher.
- Age: 84
- Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Israel
Michael Tree
ViolistMichael Tree (February 19, 1934 – March 30, 2018), born Michael Applebaum, was an American violist.- Age: 91
- Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey
- Richard Woodhams (born June 17, 1949 in Palo Alto, California) is an American oboist and recording artist. He was Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1977 until his retirement in August 2018 and is currently Professor of Oboe at the Curtis Institute of Music. At the age of fifteen, Woodhams was accepted by the Curtis Institute and began study with John de Lancie. Immediately following his graduation in 1969, he won the position of Principal Oboe with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He assumed the position of principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1977, succeeding his teacher. He succeeded de Lancie as oboe instructor at the Curtis Institute in 1986. He is faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and has taught at the Luzerne and Sarasota Music Festivals, among others. Currently, he gives weekly private lessons to the five oboe students at Curtis, and holds weekly wind classes. Woodhams's teachers include Raymond Dusté, John de Lancie, John Mack, Robert Bloom, and Jean-Louis LeRoux. Woodhams's students hold principal positions in many major orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony (William Welter) Houston Symphony (Jonathan Fischer) Pittsburgh Symphony (Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida), Baltimore Symphony (Katherine Needleman), and Atlanta Symphony (Elizabeth Koch Tiscione); other students in major orchestras include Robert Walters, English Hornist of the Cleveland Orchestra, Shea Scruggs, Assistant Principal Oboe of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Blumenfeld, Second Oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Peter Smith, Associate Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Susan Spector, Second Oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
- Age: 75
- Birthplace: Palo Alto, California
- Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia. He was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work and teaching, as well as for training many noted composers in composition at the Juilliard School. His students at Juilliard included Philip Glass, Bruce Adolphe, Louis Calabro, Michael Jeffrey Shapiro, Laurie Spiegel, Kenneth Fuchs, Richard Danielpour, Peter Schickele, Lowell Liebermann, Robert Witt, Elena Ruehr, William Schimmel, Leonardo Balada, and Leo Brouwer. He also taught composition to Joseph Willcox Jenkins and conductor James DePreist at the Philadelphia Conservatory.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1915-1987)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Ray Chen (born 6 March 1989) is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition and now records on the Sony Masterworks label.
- Age: 35
- Birthplace: Taipei, Taiwan
- Jennifer Stumm is an American violist.
- Aaron Rosand (born Aaron Rosen; March 15, 1927 – July 9, 2019) was an American violinist.
- Age: 97
- Birthplace: Hammond, Indiana
- Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility. Noted for her physical beauty, she was nicknamed "La Bellissima".Winning a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Italy, Moffo became popular there after performing leading operatic roles on three RAI television productions in 1956. She returned to America for her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on October 16, 1957. In New York, her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on November 14, 1959. She performed at the Met for over seventeen seasons. Although Moffo's earliest recordings were made for EMI Records, she later signed an exclusive contract with RCA Victor, recording for the company until the late 1970s. In the early 1960s, she hosted her own show on Italian television and appeared in several operatic films along with other non-singing roles. In the early 1970s Moffo extended her international popularity to Germany through operatic performances, TV appearances, and several films, all while continuing her American operatic performances. Due to an extremely heavy workload, Moffo suffered a serious vocal-breakdown from which she never fully recovered. Her final appearance at the Metropolitan Opera was in 1983.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1932-2006)
- Birthplace: USA, Wayne, Pennsylvania
- Enrico Di Giuseppe (October 14, 1932 – December 31, 2005) was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera (NYCO) and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1970s and 1980s. In the latter part of his career he was particularly active with the New York Grand Opera.Possessing a lyric tenor voice with a bright timbre and easy upper extension, Di Giuseppe excelled in the Italian repertory. He was particularly successful in tackling the bel canto repertoire, notably partnering Beverly Sills in productions of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux, as well as Bellini's I puritani at the NYCO. Di Giuseppe performed in similar repertoire at the Met opposite other notable bel canto interpreters like Dame Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1932-2005)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tim Cobb
Timothy Cobb (born March 28, 1964 in Albany, New York) is the current principal double bassist with the New York Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. He previously taught at the Peabody Institute of Music, and joined the Manhattan School of Music faculty in 1992. Cobb also currently teaches at SUNY Purchase, Lynn University, Rutgers University: Mason Gross School of the Arts, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and Mannes School of Music Preparatory Division. He is the current chair of the double-bass department at the Juilliard School, where he has been on faculty since 2002.- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Albany, New York
- Vinson Cole (born November 21, 1950) is an American operatic tenor. A native of Kansas City, the tenor studied at the University of Missouri, Kansas City; the Philadelphia Musical Academy; and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Margaret Harshaw. He made his European debut in Angers, France in Handel's Acis and Galatea and followed that with the role of Belmonte in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio with the Welsh National Opera. In 1977, his youthful promise was recognized when he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the WGN Competition, and was awarded both Rockefeller Foundation and National Opera Institute grants. As his career unfolded, he went on to sing leading roles in many major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris and Paris Opera-Bastille, Teatro alla Scala, and the theatres in Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg. For nine years, he sang at the Salzburg Festival. In the United States, he has sung with the New York City, Seattle, Houston, Santa Fe, and St. Louis opera companies. In 1997, he returned to open the season at La Scala as Renaud in Gluck's Armide with Riccardo Muti conducting. He made his Chicago Lyric Opera debut in the title role of Mozart's Idomeneo in 1998 and his debut with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in 1999 in another Mozart title role, La Clemenza di Tito. In the 2001 season, he returned to the Met as Alfredo in La traviata opposite the Violetta of June Anderson. Cole is closely identified with the French repertory. He began moving in that direction in 1984, after he sang in the Manon centennial performances at Paris's Opéra Comique. Not long afterward, he sang the tenor version of Gluck's Orphée in Seattle, after which many other French works came his way: Lakmé, Werther, Carmen, Don Carlos, Faust, and La damnation de Faust. Cole has sung extensively with orchestras throughout his career and has worked with many of the world's leading conductors including Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti (with whom he recorded the Mozart Requiem on the 200th anniversary of the composer's death), Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, James Levine, Edo de Waart, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Davis, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Claudio Abbado, and Daniel Barenboim. Cole has taught at the University Washington School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music and at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He has also conducted masterclasses for the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program and the Canadian Opera Company. He is currently a faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music, Conservatory of Music and Dance at UMKC and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Cole resides in Mission, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
Jenny Oaks Baker
Musician, ViolinistJenny Oaks Baker (born Jenny June Oaks; May 27, 1975) is a Grammy nominated American violinist and former member of the National Symphony Orchestra. She has released fifteen studio albums, several of which have topped or nearly topped Billboard charts.- Age: 49
- Birthplace: Utah
John Ferrillo
OboistJohn Ferrillo has been the Principal Oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2001. He also teaches at the New England Conservatory and Boston University. Prior to these posts, he was Co-Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York (starting in 1987) and a teacher at the Juilliard School. Ferrillo studied with John de Lancie at the Curtis Institute of Music.- Ruth Laredo (November 20, 1937 – May 25, 2005) was an American classical pianist. She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff, for her Ravel recordings and, in the last sixteen and a half years before her death, for her series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art “Concerts with Commentary”. She was often referred to as “America's First Lady of the Piano”.
- Age: Dec. at 67 (1937-2005)
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
Gordon Turk
Composer, OrganistGordon Turk is a prominent American concert organist. He has played throughout the United States, made two concert tours in Japan, and performed frequently in Europe, including Ukraine and Russia, both as solo organist and with orchestra.- Birthplace: New Jersey
- Peter Adolf Serkin (born July 24, 1947) is an American pianist.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Hershy Kay (November 17, 1919 – December 2, 1981) was an American composer, arranger, and orchestrator. He is most noteworthy for the orchestrations of several Broadway shows, and for the ballets he arranged for George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. Kay died on December 2, 1981 in Danbury, Connecticut.
- Age: Dec. at 62 (1919-1981)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Felix Hell (born 14 September 1985) is a German organist.
- Age: 39
- Birthplace: Frankenthal, Germany
- Liang Wang may refer to:
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: Qingdao, China
- Pierrette Alarie, (November 9, 1921 – July 10, 2011) was a French Canadian coloratura soprano. She was married to the French-Canadian tenor Léopold Simoneau.
- Age: Dec. at 89 (1921-2011)
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Shura Cherkassky (Russian: Александр (Шура) Исаакович Черкасский; 7 October 1909 – 27 December 1995) was an American classical pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone. For much of his later life, Cherkassky resided in London.
- Age: Dec. at 86 (1909-1995)
- Birthplace: Odessa, Ukraine
Helen Jepson
Actor, SingerHelen Jepson (November 28, 1904 – September 16, 1997) was an American lyric soprano noted for being a "stunning blond beauty" as well as for her voice.- Age: Dec. at 92 (1904-1997)
- Birthplace: USA, Titusville, Pennsylvania
Thomas Schippers
ConductorThomas Schippers (9 March 1930 – 16 December 1977) was an American conductor. He was highly regarded for his work in opera.- Age: Dec. at 47 (1930-1977)
- Birthplace: Portage, Michigan, USA
Julius Eastman
ComposerJulius Eastman (October 27, 1940 – May 28, 1990) was an American composer, pianist, vocalist, and dancer whose work fell under minimalism. He was among the first musicians to combine minimalist processes with elements of pop music, as well as, within his music, present dramatic and suspenseful tendencies. He often gave his pieces titles with provocative political intent, such as Evil Nigger and Gay Guerrilla.- Age: Dec. at 49 (1940-1990)
- Birthplace: New York
- Katherine Needleman (born May 14, 1978) is the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony orchestra, USA. She studied under Richard Woodhams at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, graduating at age twenty. She was the first prize winner of the Gillet-Fox International Oboe Competition of the International Double Reed Society in 2003. Ms. Needleman joined the oboe faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in 2005. She is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. In addition to playing in the Baltimore Symphony, Ms. Needleman is one of the founding members of Mico Nonet as well as Trio La Milpa.
- Age: 46
Ralph Berkowitz
ComposerRalph Berkowitz (September 5, 1910 – August 2, 2011) was an American composer, classical musician, and painter.- Age: Dec. at 100 (1910-2011)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Robert Pomakov
SingerRobert Pomakov (born February 25, 1981) is a Canadian operatic bass. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Pomakov graduated from St. Michael's Choir School, Toronto, in 1999, and later studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. He performed at the inaugural Luminato festival in Toronto.Pomakov's first appeared in 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto.- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Joseph Norman Alessi (born September 20, 1959) is an American classical trombonist who is currently Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a soloist, teacher/clinician and recording artist.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Soo Bae (born Apr 1977) is a Korean-Canadian cellist who currently lives in New York. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and began her cello studies at six years of age. She then moved to Toronto, where she studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She continued her cello studies at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she received her Bachelor of Music in 2001. Bae received her Masters of Music degree and then the Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School. Bae has won several awards and competitions, most notably the 2006 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank National Competition. Her first place award is the three-year loan of the (c.1696) Bonjour Stradivarius Cello. Other recent accomplishments are awards from the 2006 Adam International Cello Festival and Competition, New Zealand, and the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Bae founded Angelos Mission Ensemble in 2004, a Christian music academy for students of stringed instruments. The purpose of the Ensemble is to educate and mold future Christian musician leaders. The organization was incorporated in 2006 as a non-profit corporation, and she continues to direct the organization with her fiancé Jason Suh. She collaborates with other musicians including with jazz saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera in November 2006. She also formed a trio with fiddle player Mark O'Connor and pianist Soyeon Lee in 2006. She co-founded a duo, "Walk 132", with her pianist and guitarist fiancé.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- Lynn Harrell (born January 30, 1944) is an American classical cellist.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Alan Morrison
OrganistAlan Morrison is an American organist, notable both for his performance career and his teaching. He is the head of the organ department at The Curtis Institute of Music, College Organist at Ursinus College and Organist in Residence at Spivey Hall at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA. At the start of his performance career he captured First Prize in two of the most prestigious national organ competitions, the Arthur Poister National Organ Playing Competition and the Clarence Mader National Organ Playing Competition, both in 1991 while still a student. After capturing the Silver Medal in the 1994 Calgary International Organ Festival & Competition his concert career was solidified with major engagements and eventual artist management with Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. He has since played in the most major venues throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Russia and South America. He has adjudicated numerous competitions including the 50th St. Albans Competition (UK) serving as the only American judge and recitalist. He has also appeared on two episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood which aired in 1994. He is a champion of new music and specifically of American composers and regularly premiers their works. A graduate of both Curtis (BMus in Organ and MMus in Piano Accompanying) and Juilliard (Professional Studies in Organ), his teachers include Sarah Martin, John Weaver, Cherry Rhodes (organ), and Robert Harvey, Vladimir Sokoloff, and Susan Starr (piano).- George Theophilus Walker (June 27, 1922 – August 23, 2018) was an American composer, pianist, and organist, who was the first African American to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received the Pulitzer for his work Lilacs in 1996.Walker was married to pianist and scholar Helen Walker-Hill (May 26, 1936 – August 8, 2013) between 1960-1975. Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker and playwright Ian Walker.
- Age: 102
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
Olga Gorelli
Pianist, ComposerOlga Gorelli, (June 14, 1920 Bologna, Italy, died February 18, 2006) was well known for her musical talents as a composer and pianist.Olga Gorelli, maiden name Gratch, immigrated to the United States in 1937 with her family and settled in New Jersey. She married a physician, and had two children. She was a resident of Pennington, New Jersey.Gorelli began composing as a child in Italy and her first little piano pieces were published in Italy when she was ten years old. She pursued her music studies in the U.S., graduating from Immaculata College, the Curtis Institute of Music, Smith College, and the Yale University School of Music, and pursued graduate work at the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers included Rosario Scalero, Gian Carlo Menotti, Quincy Porter, Paul Hindemith, and Darius Milhaud.Gorelli taught music theory at Hollins College, and piano at Trenton State College. She also taught privately at her home and composed each morning up until the last weeks of her life. She has written orchestral and choral pieces, many songs for voice with various instruments, a mass, two operas, two dance dramas, and several works for different combinations of strings, brass, and woodwinds.- Age: Dec. at 85 (1920-2006)
- Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
David Mann
SongwriterDavid Mann (October 3, 1916 — March 1, 2002), also known as David Freedman, was an American songwriter of popular songs. His best-known songs are "There! I've Said It Again" (1945), popularized first by Vaughn Monroe and later by Bobby Vinton, "No Moon at All" (1947), recorded by Robert Goulet in (1963) and "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (1955), recorded most notably by Frank Sinatra, but covered by many other artists over the decades.- Age: Dec. at 85 (1916-2002)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Michael Stern
Conductor, Music DirectorMichael Stern is a noted American symphony conductor. Currently, he serves as the music director and lead conductor of the Kansas City Symphony in Kansas City, Missouri. He is also the founding music director of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee.- Age: 66
- Composer of ballets, symphonies and stage music whose work on Elia Kazan's Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman" moved the director to bring him to Hollywood to compose the score for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951). Lyrical and jazz-influenced, the score earned North the first of 15 Oscar nominations (he never won) and introduced the sparer, more economic style of orchestration that eventually displaced the lusher scores of the 1930s and 40s.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1910-1991)
- Birthplace: Chester, Pennsylvania, USA
Laura Huxley
Musician, WriterLaura Huxley (née Archera) (November 2, 1911 – December 13, 2007) was an Italian-American musician, author, psychological counselor and lecturer, and the wife of author Aldous Huxley.- Age: Dec. at 96 (1911-2007)
- Birthplace: Turin, Italy
Jan Savitt
MusicianJan Savitt (born Jacob Savetnick; September 4, 1907 – October 4, 1948), known as "The Stokowski of Swing", from having played violin in Leopold Stokowski's orchestra, was an American bandleader, musical arranger, and violinist.- Age: Dec. at 41 (1907-1948)
- Birthplace: Shumsk, Ukraine
David Hayes
ConductorDavid Hayes (born May 15, 1963 in Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American conductor. Hayes was educated at the University of Hartford, Hartt School of Music (BM cum laude, musicology) and the Curtis Institute of Music (Diploma in Orchestral Conducting) where his teacher was Otto-Werner Mueller. In addition, he studied viola with Richard Rusack at Hartt and conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, ME. David Hayes serves on the Board of Directors of Chorus America, the national service organization for choruses. He is currently Music Director of the New York Choral Society, Director of Orchestral and Conducting Studies at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York, Staff Conductor of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and a member of the conducting staff of the Philadelphia Orchestra having been appointed by Wolfgang Sawallisch. In addition to his other duties, he served as Artistic Advisor to The Washington Chorus during the 2007-2008 season. He was previously Music Director of The Philadelphia Singers, a professional chorus, until they were dissolved in 2015. With the New York Choral Society, Hayes has conducted New York and world premieres including works by Jennifer Higdon, James MacMillan and Joseph Vella. With The Philadelphia Singers, Hayes conducted numerous Philadelphia and World Premieres including works of Jennifer Higdon, Ezra Laderman, Robert Capanna, Thomas Whitman and Morton Feldman. David Hayes is a conductor with an unusually broad range of repertoire, spanning the symphonic, oratorio/choral, and operatic genres. He has made his Philadelphia Orchestra conducting debut in May, 2003 sharing a program with Wolfgang Sawallisch. He has made conducting appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Springfield (MA) Symphony, Lancaster (PA) Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Mannes Orchestra, Rutgers Orchestra, Relâche Ensemble, Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Washington Chorus, Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Berkshire Choral Festival, Curtis Opera Theatre and the European Center for Opera and Voice (ECOV) in Belgium and Prague. He made his debut at the Verbier Festival in 1999 with a concert featuring percussionist Evelyn Glennie. He has assisted and prepared orchestras for many of the world's leading conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirkanov, David Zinman, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Roger Norrington, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos and Mstislav Rostropovich. He served as Assistant Conductor to Sir André Previn for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra's 1999 European Tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter and served as cover conductor for Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic. Chorally, he has prepared ensembles for Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Nicholas McGegan, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, Jeffrey Tate, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos and Neeme Järvi.- Age: 61
Leonard Kastle
Screenwriter, Film DirectorLeonard Gregory Kastle (February 11, 1929 – May 18, 2011) was an American opera composer, librettist, and director, although he is best known as the writer/director of the 1969 film The Honeymoon Killers, his only venture into the cinema, for which he did all his own research. He was an adjunct member of the SUNY Albany music faculty.Following his high school education in Mount Vernon, New York, Kastle began his musical training at the Juilliard School of Music (1938–40). From 1940-42, he attended the Mannes School of Music and later studied composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1944–50), earning a B.A. in 1950. While at the Curtis Institute, he held scholarships in composition with Rosario Scalero, Gian-Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber, and a piano scholarship with Isabelle Vengerova. He attended Columbia University from 1947 to 1950.In 1956, Kastle composed a thirteen-minute "made-to-measure" opera, titled The Swing, for two singers, a speaking part, and piano accompaniment. It was commissioned by and broadcast on the NBC television network on Sunday, June 10, 1956, at noon. He also wrote The Pariahs, about the sinking of the whaler Essex, a trilogy of operas about the Shakers known under the collective title The Passion of Mother Ann: A Sacred Festival Play, a children's opera called Professor Lookalike and the Children, a piano concerto, sonatas for piano and violin, and three unproduced screenplays, Wedding at Cana, Change of Heart, and Shakespeare's Dog.In a 2003 interview for the Criterion Collection, he said that no producer wanted Wedding at Cana, just another Honeymoon Killers, which he did not want to do. After The Honeymoon Killers, Kastle returned to teaching and composing. After the Criterion release of the film, he was rediscovered by a new generation of cult film enthusiasts and occasionally attended film-related events such as the Ed Wood Film Festival in 2007, where he served on the panel of judgesKastle died May 18, 2011, at his home in Westerlo, New York, at the age of 82.- Age: Dec. at 82 (1929-2011)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Benita Valente
SingerBenita Valente (born October 19, 1934), is a distinguished American soprano whose long career has encompassed the operatic stage as well as performance of lieder, chamber music and oratorio. She is especially lauded for her interpretations of Mozart and Handel, but she also excelled in certain Verdi roles. The New York Times once referred to her "as gifted a singer as we have today, worldwide."Benita Valente was born in Delano, California. She studied voice at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara with Lotte Lehmann and Martial Singher. She later studied with Margaret Harshaw at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she graduated in 1960. That same year she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and made her formal debut at the Marlboro Music Festival with famed pianist Rudolf Serkin, among others. Early in her career, she appeared regularly at the Freiberg Opera in Germany. She made a notable debut with the Metropolitan Opera on Sept. 22, 1973 singing Pamina in The Magic Flute. A regular at the Met, her many roles included Gilda in Rigoletto, Nanetta in Falstaff, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Ilia in Idomeneo and Almirena in Rinaldo. As a chamber performer, she has collaborated with the Guarneri, Juilliard and Orion String Quartets. She has performed with numerous instrumentalists, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianists Emanuel Ax, Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode, and she made a celebrated recording of Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock with pianist Rudolf Serkin and clarinetist Harold Wright. Among the composers who have written music for Valente are William Bolcom, Alberto Ginastera, John Harbison, Earl Kim, Libby Larsen and Richard Wernick. She has performed with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the world and has recorded extensively in wide-ranging repertoire. Valente has been recorded by at least seventeen recording companies. She received a Grammy Award for her recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Quartet No.2 and a Grammy nomination for her recording of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ, both performed with the Juilliard String Quartet. In 1999 she was the recipient of the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by Chamber Music America, for her contributions to chamber music – the first vocalist to be so honored in the 20-year history of the award.Ms. Valente retired from singing in October, 2000. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, bassoonist Anthony Checchia, who is the founder and artistic director of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and administrator for the Marlboro Music School and Festival. Her son, Peter Checchia, also based in Philadelphia, is an accomplished photographer and artist. Increasingly, she has devoted her time to teaching vocal master classes. She has taught at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont; Cincinnati Conservatory program in Lucca, Italy; the European Mozart Academy in Poland; the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program; the Stearns Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia and the Young Artist Program of the National Arts Centre's Summer Music Institute in Ottawa. She currently teaches at Temple University.- Age: 90
- Birthplace: Delano, California
- Cecile Buencamino Licad is a Filipina classical pianist. She was born in Manila.
- Age: 63
- Birthplace: Manila, Philippines
- Lee Henry Hoiby (February 17, 1926 – March 28, 2011) was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism at a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned. His most well known work is his setting of Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke, which premiered at the St Paul Opera in 1971.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1926-2011)
- Birthplace: Madison, Wisconsin
Henry Pleasants
Music critic, WriterHenry Pleasants (May 12, 1910 – January 4, 2000) was an American music critic and intelligence officer.- Age: Dec. at 89 (1910-2000)
Julius Baker
FlautistJulius Baker (September 23, 1915 – August 6, 2003) was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players. During the course of five decades he concertized with several of America's premier orchestral ensembles including the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.- Age: Dec. at 87 (1915-2003)
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
- Richard Goode (born June 1, 1943) is an American classical pianist who is especially known for his interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
George Rochberg
ComposerGeorge Rochberg (July 5, 1918 – May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the practice following the death of his teenage son in 1964; he claimed this compositional technique had proved inadequate to express his grief and had found it empty of expressive intent. By the 1970s, Rochberg's use of tonal passages in his music had invoked controversy among critics and fellow composers. A teacher at the University of Pennsylvania until 1983, Rochberg also served as chairman of its music department until 1968 and was named the first Annenberg Professor of the Humanities in 1978. For notable students See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#George Rochberg.- Age: Dec. at 86 (1918-2005)
- Birthplace: Paterson, New Jersey
- Arnold Maurice Jacobs (June 11, 1915 – October 7, 1998) was an American tubist who was most known as the principal tubist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1944 until his retirement in 1988. Jacobs was considered one of the foremost brass pedagogues of his time and was considered an expert on breathing as it related to brasswind, woodwind, and vocal performance. Due to childhood illness and adult onset asthma, his lung capacity was significantly impaired. He is best remembered for his playing philosophy which he referred to as "Song and wind."
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1915-1998)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Conductor, Music DirectorMiguel Alberto Harth-Bedoya (born 1968) is a Peruvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Lima, Peru
- Geraldine Lamboley Walther (born July 22, 1950 in Tampa, Florida) is an American violist. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Takács String Quartet, replacing Roger Tapping as violist of the group. She is the former principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony, a role she held from 1976 through 2005. Previously, she was assistant principal viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Miami Symphony and Baltimore Symphony. She won first prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition in 1979. She currently teaches on the music faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before joining the Takács Quartet at the University of Colorado, Geraldine Walther was Principal Violist of the San Francisco Symphony for 29 years. Early in her career she served as assistant principal of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Miami Philharmonic, and the Baltimore Symphony. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Lillian Fuchs, at the Curtis Institute with Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, and in 1979 she won first prize at the William Primrose International Competition. She had been on the music faculty of The San Francisco Conservatory, Notre Dame de Namur University, and Mills College and conducted master classes at numerous universities and festivals. She has performed as soloist on numerous occasions with the San Francisco Symphony and given the US premieres of Michael Tippett's Triple Concerto in 1981, Tōru Takemitsu's A String Around Autumn in 1990, Peter Lieberson's Viola Concerto in 1999, George Benjamin's Viola, Viola (together with SFS Associate Principal Violist Yun Jie Liu), also in 1999, and the Viola Concerto by Robin Holloway. In 1995 Ms. Walther was selected by Sir Georg Solti as a member of his Musicians of the World, which performed in Geneva to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in July 1995. She has also served as principal violist with the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Walther regularly participates in leading chamber music festivals, including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, and, most recently, the Telluride, Seattle, and Ruby Mountain festivals, Music at Kohl Mansion, Green Music Festival in Sonoma, and the inaugural season of Music@Menlo. She has collaborated with such artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jaime Laredo, and appeared as a guest artist with the Vermeer, Guarneri, Lindsay, Cypress, Tokyo and St. Lawrence quartets. Geraldine Walther’s recordings include Paul Hindemith's Trauermusik and Der Schwanendreher with the San Francisco Symphony (both on London/Decca), Paul Chihara's Golden Slumbers with the San Francisco Chamber Singers (Albany), and Lou Harrison's Threnody (New Albion). In 2003, she recorded, with SFS Assistant Concertmaster Mark Volkert and cellist Jan Volkert, a disc of Mr. Volkert's transcriptions for string trio entitled Delectable Pieces. In 2013, she released a cd of the music of Johannes Brahms, which includes the two viola sonata (F minor and E-flat major) and the Trio in A minor for Viola, Violoncello and Piano.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Tampa, Florida
Jonathan Biss
PianistJonathan Biss (born September 18, 1980) is an American pianist, teacher, and writer based in Philadelphia. He is the co-artistic director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music Festival.- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Bloomington, USA, Indiana
Paul Romero
Pianist, ComposerPaul Anthony Romero is an American computer and video game music composer and classical pianist who has won awards for his work.- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Southern California, California
Arnold Steinhardt
Arnold Steinhardt (born 1937 in Los Angeles, California), is an American violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet. Steinhardt made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 14. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Ivan Galamian and later in Switzerland with Joseph Szigeti and Toscha Seidel. In 1958 he won the Leventritt International Violin competition and consequently was invited by George Szell to take second chair in the Cleveland Orchestra's first violin section (next to concertmaster Josef Gingold). He was later appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and University of Maryland. In 2009 he was appointed to the faculty of the Colburn School in Los Angeles. He has also performed extensively as a soloist. He lives in New York City, and is the author of two books; Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony, an account of his life in the Guarneri String Quartet, and Violin Dreams, an autobiography about his life and experiences as a violinist. He appeared as himself in the 1999 film Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep and also featuring violinists Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. Arnold Steinhardt received an honorary degree from Binghamton University.- Age: 88
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Yoonjung Han
PianistYoonjung "Yoonie" Han (born January 12, 1985 in South Korea) is an award-winning South Korean-born American classical pianist.- Age: 40
- Birthplace: South Korea
Leonard Rose
Leonard Joseph Rose (July 27, 1918 – November 16, 1984) was an American cellist and pedagogue. Rose was born in Washington, D.C.; his parents were immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine. Rose took lessons from Walter Grossman, Frank Miller and Felix Salmond and after completing his studies at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music at age 20, he joined Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra, and almost immediately became associate principal. At 21 he was principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra and at 26 was the principal of the New York Philharmonic. He made many recordings as a soloist after 1951, including concertos with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell and Bruno Walter among others. Rose also joined with Isaac Stern and Eugene Istomin in a celebrated piano trio. Rose's legacy as a teacher remains to this day: his students from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute and Ivan Galamian's Meadowmount Summer School fill the sections of many American orchestras, notably those of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. His pupils include Lori Singer, Raymond Davis, Desmond Hoebig, Peter Stumpf, Fred Sherry, Christopher von Baeyer, Myung-wha Chung, Patrick Sohn Thomas Demenga, Stephen Kates, Lynn Harrell, Yehuda Hanani, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Steven Honigberg, Eric Kim, Roger Drinkall, Robert deMaine, Bruce Uchimura, Donald Whitton, Yo-Yo Ma, Ronald Leonard, Steven Pologe, Sara Sant'Ambrogio, Matt Haimovitz, Richard Hirschl, John Sant’Ambrogio, and Marijane Carr Siegal. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Leonard Rose. He played an Amati cello dated 1662, played today by Gary Hoffman. Rose died in White Plains, New York, of leukemia. In November 2009, a memorial marker was placed for Rose in the Mt. Ararat Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York, next to the grave of his first wife, Minnie Knopow Rose, who died in 1964. Minnie and Leonard met at Curtis, where she studied viola. His second wife was Xenia Petschek, whom he married in January 1965. Xenia Rose died in 2002.- Age: Dec. at 66 (1918-1984)
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
Michael Hennagin
Film Score Composer, Professor, ComposerMichael Hennagin (17 September 1936 – 4 June 1993) was an American composer and university professor.- Age: Dec. at 56 (1936-1993)
- Birthplace: The Dalles, Oregon
Young-Chang Cho
Young-Chang Cho is a Korean classical cellist teaching at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany's Ruhr Area.- Age: 67
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- Leon McCawley (born 12 July 1973) is a British classical pianist. He studied with Heather Slade-Lipkin at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and with Eleanor Sokoloff at The Curtis Institute of Music in the United States, and latterly pianist Nina Milkina was a source of inspiration. He won the first prize in the Ninth International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna in 1993, and second prize in the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. He has given solo performances with major orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. McCawley has produced CD recordings of music by Samuel Barber, by Ludwig van Beethoven, and by Robert Schumann, as well as a complete edition of Mozart's piano sonatas and a world premier recording of the complete piano works of Hans Gál. Two of his recordings have earned the "Editor's Choice" award of the journal The Gramophone.
- Age: 51
Peter Wiley
Peter Wiley (born 1955) is a cellist and cello teacher. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music at 13 years of age, where he studied with David Soyer. He was then appointed principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 20, after one year in the Pittsburgh Symphony.He has been awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was nominated with the Beaux Arts Trio for a Grammy Award in 1998 and for another award with the Guarneri String Quartet in 2009. As a member of the Beaux Arts Trio, Wiley performed over a thousand concerts, including appearances with many of the world's greatest orchestras.He continues his association with the Marlboro Music Festival, dating from 1971. He has also been a faculty artist at Caramoor's "Rising Stars" program and has taught at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Mannes College of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. He is currently on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. He became the cellist of the Guarneri Quartet in 2001, succeeding David Soyer, and remained until the group's retirement in 2009. He is one of the founders of the Opus One Piano Quartet. He plays a Venetian cello by Matteo Goffriller.- Age: 70
Jascha Brodsky
Jascha Brodsky (June 6, 1907 – March 3, 1997) was a Russian-American violinist and teacher. Born in Kharkiv, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (in present-day Ukraine), he began his violin studies with his violinist father at the age of six. He later studied at the conservatory in Tbilisi, Georgia, and by 1926, was performing successfully all over the Soviet Union. That same year, he went to Paris to study with Lucien Capet. There he also played for Sergei Prokofiev (Violin Concerto No. 1) and performed with pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinists Nathan Milstein and Mischa Elman.Soon thereafter, he moved again, to Belgium to study with the legendary Eugène Ysaÿe.In 1930 he moved to America to study with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music. Alongside his classmates Orlando Cole, Max Aronoff, and Benjamin Sharlip, Brodsky formed in 1932 an ensemble which would later be called the Curtis String Quartet and served as the first violinist of the quartet until the group disbanded in 1981 after the death of the quartet's violist, Max Aronoff.Brodsky joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute in 1932 and remained there until just after World War II when, with the rest of the Curtis String Quartet, he resigned over disagreements with certain of the school's policies to help found the New School of Music. After re-joining the faculty in the early 1950s, he remained for nearly fifty years, later being appointed to the Efrem Zimbalist Chair of Violin Studies, which position he held until his death in 1997. A respected pedagogue, his students are dispersed widely among the finest musical institutions in the world. Numbered among his students are Hilary Hahn, Joseph de Pasquale, Leila Josefowicz, Choong-Jin Chang, Juliette Kang, Judith Ingolfsson, Herbert Greenberg, Joey Corpus, Chin Kim, and Dr. Shira Katsman.With Aronoff, Brodsky founded the New School of Music in Philadelphia when they decided that there was a present need to train musicians specifically for a career in chamber music or in orchestra. In 1986, The New School of Music was merged into Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance, where Brodsky was appointed Professor Emeritus. He taught at the school until his retirement in 1996.He died in Ocala, Florida.- Age: Dec. at 89 (1907-1997)
- Birthplace: Latvia
Judith Blegen
Judith Blegen (April 27, 1943, Lexington, Kentucky) is an American soprano, particularly associated with light lyric roles of the French, Italian and German repertories.- Age: 81
- Birthplace: USA, Lexington, Kentucky
Judith Ingolfsson
Judith Ingolfsson (born in Reykjavík, Iceland) is a violinist.- Age: 51
- Birthplace: Iceland
- Susan Starr (born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American pianist.
Michael Houstoun
PianistMichael Houstoun (born 20 October 1952) is a concert pianist from New Zealand. He has twice in his life performed the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas and in between these achievements, he overcame focal hand dystonia.- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Timaru, New Zealand
Richard Stone
Film Score Composer, ComposerRichard Stone (November 27, 1953 – March 9, 2001) was an American composer. He played an important part in the revival of Warner Bros. animation in the 1990s, composing music and songs for Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania, The Plucky Duck Show, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Histeria!, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, Freakazoid!, and Road Rovers. Many consider him to be an heir to the style of Carl Stalling.After studying cello with Lloyd Smith and Orlando Cole in addition to music theory at the Curtis Institute of Music, Stone went on to earn a degree at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. In 1980, he moved to California to work as a music editor with such composers as Georges Delerue on Platoon and other films) and Maurice Jarre (on The Witness).He went on to write music for various feature films and television series including the Bruce Campbell western Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Pumpkinhead, North Shore, and the miniseries In a Child's Name. Stone worked on John Hughes films including Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Sixteen Candles (both scored by Ira Newborn). Stone also composed the music for the William Shatner series, "Rescue 911". Stone also scored the PBS Documentary "Medal of Honor" along with Mark Watters. He later wrote compositions for various films including, Summer Heat, Never on Tuesday, Tripwire, Vietnam Texas, and Victim of Love. Stone has won several Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for Animaniacs and Histeria, as well as Outstanding Original Song, shared with lyricist, writer, creator and senior producer Tom Ruegger, for the main titles of Animaniacs and Freakazoid!. Stone shared many of his music direction/composing awards with his team of composers, who included Steve Bernstein, Carl Johnson, Julie Bernstein, Gordon Goodwin and Tim Kelly. According to Animaniacs writer/producer Paul Rugg, crew members fondly referred to Richard as "The Great Stonini", a sort of musical magician whose compositions and orchestrations often raised the quality of the cartoons to unexpected musical and artistic heights. Stone died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles, California at age 47.- Age: Dec. at 47 (1953-2001)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Soovin Kim (born 1976) is a Korean American violinist.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Iowa City, Iowa
Ethel Stark
Ethel Stark, (25 August 1910 – 16 February 2012) was a Canadian violinist and conductor. Born in Montreal, Quebec, she studied at the McGill Conservatory of Music with Alfred De Sève and Alfred Whitehead. From 1928 to 1934, she studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Lea Luboshutz, Louis Bailly, Artur Rodziński, Fritz Reiner and Carl Flesch. For many years she taught on the faculty of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.In 1979 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2003 she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. In 1980 she was awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa degree from Concordia University.She died in Montreal and was buried in Montreal's Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Cemetery.A park in Montreal has been named after her. Parc Ethel-Stark is located at the corner of Prince-Arthur Ouest and Clark streets.- Age: Dec. at 101 (1910-2012)
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Sean Eric Kennard (born October 3, 1984) is an American classical pianist.
- Age: 40
- Birthplace: San Diego, California
- Andre-Michel Schub (born 26 December 1952, Paris) is a classical pianist.
- Age: 72
- Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of Alan McManus.McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. McGill won the 2016 Indian Open after having never been beyond the quarter-final stage of a ranking event previously.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
Valerie Bobbett Gardner
Valerie Bobbett Gardner (born December 14, 1947) is an American violinist, pedagogue, and author.- Age: 77
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (1912–1986) was a principal cellist and music director whose professional career spanned over a half century. Miller studied at Curtis Institute of Music, under Felix Salmond and at age 18, joined the Philadelphia Orchestra. His longest stints were principal cellist of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conductor of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. A 1950 segment of Miller playing cello in "The Swan" from Carnival of the Animals with an orchestra on The Voice of Firestone is sometimes shown on Classic Arts Showcase.- Age: Dec. at 74 (1912-1986)
Walter Sear
Film Score Composer, Film ProducerWalter Edmond Sear (27 April 1930 – 29 April 2010) was an American recording engineer, musician, instrument importer and designer, inventor, composer and film producer. He was considered a pioneer in the use of the synthesizer and an expert on vintage recording equipment. Sear ran the Sear Sound recording studio (in Hell's Kitchen ); known for its vast collection of vintage analog recording equipment and patronized by artists including Steely Dan, Sonic Youth, David Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, Paul McCartney and Patti Smith.- Age: Dec. at 80 (1930-2010)
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Kevin Cobb is an American trumpet player who joined the American Brass Quintet in fall 1998. He also became a faculty member of The Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival. Currently, he teaches at the Hartt School and at SUNY Stony Brook. Originally from Bowling Green, Ohio, his first solo appearance was at age fifteen with the Toledo Symphony. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Frank Kaderabek. He continued studies at The Juilliard School earning a Master of Music degree as a student of Mark Gould. Since his days at Curtis, Cobb has toured and performed in Asia, Central America and Europe, as well as in the United States. In New York, Cobb is regularly active with many of New York's top organizations. He can frequently be heard in radio and television commercials and has recorded over eight CDs with the ABQ alone. His first solo CD, One, released by Summit Records, has an all-American program of unaccompanied trumpet solos.
Claire Huangci
Claire Huangci (born March 22, 1990) is an American classical pianist.- Age: 34
- Birthplace: Rochester, New York
Casper Reardon
Casper Reardon (April 15, 1907 – March 9, 1941) was a classical and jazz harpist. He studied classical harp at the Curtis Institute of Music going on to play for the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Later he played jazz as well. The harp had been used in dance music for occasional flourishes before Reardon, but he is considered a first for using harp as a jazz instrument for solos and performances. By 1936 he was described as the "World's Hottest Harpist." During the following year he played "Cousin Caspar" in the film You're a Sweetheart. The year after that, 1938, he played harp for the Broadway musical I Married an Angel.As a jazz musician he can be heard on albums by Jack Teagarden and Paul Whiteman. He recorded a handful of records for Liberty Music Shop Records and Schirmer Records.- Age: Dec. at 33 (1907-1941)
- Birthplace: New York
Sergiu Luca
Sergiu Luca was a Romanian-born American violinist, renowned as an early music pioneer who first introduced playing J. S. Bach's violin oeuvre on period instrument; during his career he performed and recorded on both baroque and modern violins.- Age: Dec. at 67 (1943-2010)
- Birthplace: Bucharest, Romania
David Craighead
David Craighead (January 24, 1924 – March 26, 2012) was a noted American organist.Craighead was born in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. He studied with Alexander McCurdy at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in 1946. While at Curtis he met his future wife Marian Reiff, also a pupil of McCurdy. They married in 1948. From 1955 until his retirement in the summer of 1992 he was both Professor of Organ and Chair of the Organ Division of the Keyboard Department at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Craighead was also organist of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester, a position he held for 48 years. In June 1968, Craighead received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He recorded works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre du Mage, César Franck, Felix Mendelssohn, Olivier Messiaen, Samuel Adler, Paul Cooper, Lou Harrison, William Albright, Vincent Persichetti, Max Reger, Leo Sowerby, Dudley Buck, and Louis Vierne. He was a featured performer at many national conventions and international congresses of the American Guild of Organists, and was voted the 1983 International Performer of the Year by the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He was also an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. Craighead was the first recipient of Eastman’s Eisenhart Award for Teaching Excellence. In the fall of 2008, Eastman dedicated the Craighead-Saunders pipe organ at Christ Church in honor of him and his fellow Eastman organ professor, Russell Saunders. He died, aged 88, at his Valley Manor home in Rochester, New York, survived by his daughter, Betsy and his son, Jim.- Age: Dec. at 88 (1924-2012)
- Birthplace: Strasburg, Pennsylvania
- Judy Kang (born July 13, 1979 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian violinist, model, producer, singer, and composer. Born in Canada to a single mother, she began playing the violin at four years of age in her native Edmonton, Alberta, and has since toured worldwide as soloist with a number of orchestras and ensembles.
- Birthplace: Edmonton, Canada
Jasmine Choi
Jasmine Choi (born in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean-born flutist, educated in the US, living in Austria.- Age: 42
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
Dong-Suk Kang
Dong-Suk Kang (born April 28, 1954) is a South Korean violinist.- Age: 70
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
