Alirio Díaz (12 November 1923 – 5 July 2016) Venezuelan classical guitari

Alirio Díaz was one of the most prominent composer-guitarists of his country. A guitar competition named Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Alirio Díaz has been held in his honor in Caracas and other cities in Venezuela (the April 2006 contest was held in Carora). Many compositions have been dedicated to Díaz including Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's Invocación y Danza. In 1961, Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's piece Invocación y Danza, dedicated to Alirio Díaz, won the First Prize at the Coupe International de Guitare awarded by the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF). In turn, Díaz obliged and the next year performed this very difficult solo piece. It has also been recorded by Díaz. This was the first of many compositions subsequently dedicated to Alirio Díaz. Alirio Díaz performed all over the world combining baroque music with the works of modern Latin American composers, such as Lauro, Sojo and Barrios Mangoré. He teached in Rome and performed in concert with his son Senio. During the European winter, he used to return to Venezuela to his native town, La Candelaria. WIKIPEDIA

CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD 1941 - 2014

Christopher Hogwood, whose Academy of Ancient Music was a key ensemble in the period-instrument movement, striving to perform early music as the composer intended and as audiences were first presumed to have heard it, died on Wednesday 24 SEP 2014, at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 73.
NYTimes Obit | OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE (10 September 1941 – 24 September 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, musicologist and the founder of the Academy of Ancient Music.
WIKIPEDIA

Lorin Maazel 1930 - 2014

Lorin Varencove Maazel (March 6, 1930 - July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer.

Maazel was born to Jewish American parents of Russian origin in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel (1903–2009), was a singer, teacher of voice and piano, and an actor (he co-starred in George A. Romero's 1977 horror movie Martin); and his mother, Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel (1894–1992), founded the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. His grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years. Both Lincoln and Marie gave interviews for the Oral History Collection at the University of Pittsburgh, Lincoln's in 1994, and Marie's in 1974. These can be heard online.
Wikipedia Bio
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NYTimes Obit

Conductor COLIN DAVIS dies at age 85

Colin Davis, the former principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and one of Britain's elder statesmen of classical music, has died at 85. The orchestra said Davis died Sunday 14 APR 2013, after a short illness.

One of the best-known figures in British music, Davis worked with the London symphony for more than half a century.

He first conducted for the LSO in 1959 and took the principal conductor post in 1995, serving until 2006 before becoming president.

Wikipedia

Remembering Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died Wednesday morning 27 February 2013 in Fort Worth. He was 78.

NYTimes Obit | Wikipedia

Pianist Van Cliburn dead at age 78

MUSICIAN milestones: Pianist Van Cliburn dies, bone cancer, 78 years old fb.me/2A0yWwIYn

— Alan (@AlanRacmty) February 27, 2013

Wolfgang Sawallisch dies at 89

pinterest.com/pin/5103142014… MUSICIAN milestones: Wolfgang Sawallisch, Conductor, Dies at 89
— Alan (@AlanRacmty) February 26, 2013

Death of American conductor JAMES DEPREIST

MUSICIAN milestones: Remembering Pioneering American Conductor, Poet And Anime Inspiration James DePreist  fb.me/1yche0nJN
— Alan (@AlanRacmty) February 9, 2013

American Composer Elliott Carter dies at 103

Elliott Carter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer who fused European and American modernist traditions in seminal but formidable works, and who lived to hear ovations for music that was once thought to be anything but listener-friendly, died Nov. 5 at his home in New York City. He was 103. More Washington Post |

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music. His compositions, which have been performed all over the world, include orchestral and chamber music as well as solo instrumental and vocal works. He was extremely productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 14 more after he turned 100 in 2008. His last work, 12 Short Epigrams for piano, was completed on August 13, 2012. More Wikipedia

Composer Hans Werner Henze dies, age 86

Hans Werner Henze, a prolific German composer who came of age in the Nazi era and grew estranged from his country while gaining renown for richly imaginative operas and orchestral works, died on Saturday, 27 October 2012, in Dresden, Germany, where he was due to attend the premiere that evening of a ballet set to one of his scores. He was 86. NYTimes | Wikipedia Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".His music is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition.

British Broadcaster: Classic FM founder dies

Michael Bukht studied history at King's College London and began a long and varied career in television and radio in 1963 as a BBC trainee where he worked on Mrs Dale's Diary and The World At One.

He left the BBC to work in South Africa and Jamaica but moved to Canterbury in 1985 where he became Managing Director of Invicta radio, a forerunner to Heart. He stayed in Kent for the rest of his life. Staff from the time say he had no tolerance for 'inane patter!'

Later, Michael joined the GWR group and in 1992 was one of the co-founders of Classic FM, he was awarded an OBE in 1996. Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.

History of Classic FM on Wikipedia


www.classicfm.co.uk/

Lord Harewood, Opera book editor dies

George Lascelles, the seventh Earl of Harewood, a member of the British royal family who was an internationally recognized writer on opera, died on July 11 at Harewood House, his family’s home near Leeds. He was 88. George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, KBE AM (7 February 1923 – 11 July 2011), styled The Hon. George Lascelles before 1929 and Viscount Lascelles between 1929 and 1947, was the elder son of the 6th Earl of Harewood (1882–1947), and Princess Mary, Princess Royal, the only daughter of King George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary. He had a younger brother, The Honourable Gerald Lascelles. Lord Harewood was the eldest nephew of King George VI and was a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He succeeded to his father's earldom on 23 May 1947. A music enthusiast, Lord Harewood devoted most of his career to opera. He served as editor of Opera magazine from 1950 to 1953 and as director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1951 to 1953 and again from 1969 to 1972. He served as chairman of the board of the English National Opera (ENO) from 1986 to 1995; Managing Director of the ENO from 1972 to 1985; artistic director of the Edinburgh, Adelaide and Leeds Festivals; Managing Director of the ENO offshoot English National Opera North from 1978 to 1981. Lord Harewood served as a governor of the BBC from 1985 to 1987 and as the president of the British Board of Film Classification from 1985 to 1996. He was the author or editor of three books, Kobbé's Complete Opera Book (ed. 1954, now The New Kobbé's Opera Book, edited with Antony Peattie, latest ed. 1997), The Tongs and the Bones (an autobiography, 1981), and Kobbé's Illustrated Opera Book (ed. 1989).

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Kobbé's Illustrated Opera Book

Bernard Greenhouse founded the Beaux Arts...dead at 95

The acclaimed cellist was a founding member of the renowned Beaux Arts Trio. Bernard Greenhouse died Friday, 13 May 2011 at his home on Cape Cod. He was 95. Greenhouse was born in Newark, N.J., and began playing cello at age 8. As a teenager, he was admitted to what was then known as the Juilliard Graduate School in New York City. He began his career as a soloist in the mid-20th century, but it was a time when concert presenters rarely booked solo cellists, according to The New York Times. In 1955, he founded the Beaux Arts with violinist Daniel Guilet and pianist Menahem Pressler.

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Wikipedia Bio

Choir Conductor John Alldis has died

Choral director and conductor, John Alldis, was 81.  Obituary

John Alldis

Soprano Helen Boatwright, famed for her pioneering performances of the songs of American composer Charles Ives, has died in upstate New York at 94.

Born: November 17, 1916 - Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA, died in upstate New York at 94, 2 DEC 2010.

The American American soprano and teacher, Helen Boatwright (née Strassburger), grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin during the Depression. She began her training with Anna Shram Irving. Later she studied voice with Professor Marion Sims (1892-1980) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio), receiving the bachelor degree in music in 1939 and the master's degree in music in 1943.

Bio | Search Amazon.com for Helen Boatwright

Tenor Peter Hofman dies at age 66

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

Wikipedia Bio | Search Amazon.com for Peter Hofmann

Dame Joan Sutherland dies, age 83

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

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