English composer GRAHAM WHETTAM passes at age 79
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07

The prolific Swindon-born composer Graham Whettam, who was known for his futuristic piano works, has died, aged 79. He passed away on Friday [18 AUG 2007] at his home in Gloucestershire and since then tributes have been paid to a man known as one of Britain's elder statesmen of music.
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Conductor Richard Bradshaw dead at 63
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07

Richard Bradshaw, general director of the Canadian Opera Company and the man who brought an opera house to Toronto, has died.

 

Bradshaw, who conducted more than 60 operas in his 18 years with the COC, died Wednesday evening of an apparent heart attack, the company has confirmed. He was 63.Bradshaw came to the COC as a guest conductor in 1988 and quickly became chief conductor and head of music. In 1994, he was appointed artistic director. ... See all stories on this topic | Canada.com

Tikhon Khrennikov, Prolific Soviet Composer, Dies at 94
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
Tikhon Khrennikov, a prolific Russian composer and pianist best known in
the West as an official Soviet antagonist of Shostakovich.

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Flutist, composer, teacher Louis Moyse dies at 94
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07

World-renowned flutist and composer Louis Moyse, co-founder of Vermont's Marlboro Music Festival and teacher to top flutists around the world has passed away...
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Soprano Teresa Stich-Randall dies at 79
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
American opera singer Teresa Stich-Randall, a soprano praised by Arturo Toscanini as "the find of the century," has died 17 JUL 2007 in Vienna, Austria's Bundestheater said Tuesday without specifying the cause of death. Acclaimed for her interpretations of Mozart's greatest works, Stich-Randall shuttled between the United States and Europe, where she spent most of her professional career singing in the world's great opera houses. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" and was a regular at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera, where she performed on 355 separate occasions before retiring in 1972.

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Jerry Hadley, Operatic Tenor, Is Dead
Now Playing: Jerry Hadley (June 16, 1952 ? July 18, 2007)
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
The American operatic tenor Jerry Hadley, noted for his bright lyric voice, lively acting and adventurous choice of repertory, died today in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 55. ...MORE from NY Times

Mr. Hadley had been in the hospital since July 10, when he was admitted after shooting himself with an air rifle at his home in Clinton Corners, N.Y., according to New York police. On Monday, he was removed from life support and given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. ...SF Gate.com

...WIKI BIO | Hadley CDiscography

Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
Pianist Natalia Karp, whose life was spared during the Holocaust because of her musical talent, died on 9 July 2007, The Daily Telegraph of London reports. Born in Krakow, Poland to wealthy parents, Karp showed promise as a musician early on and decided at age 13 to pursue a career as a pianist. Guided by her grandfather, a gifted cantor, she went to Berlin three years later to study with Artur Schnabel. At 18, Karp performed Chopin's First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic; rather than pursuing her nascent career in the city, however, she returned to Poland to be with her ailing mother.

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Regine Crespin, 80, Luminous French Soprano, Has Died
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07

Régine Crespin (23 February 1927, Marseille – 5 July 2007, Paris)

She was a French operatic soprano, later a mezzo-soprano, who excelled in both the French and German repertoire. Crespin, was the most important French soprano to conquer the demanding roles of Wagner, Verdi, and French opera during the second half of the twentieth century...

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Opera star Beverly Sills dies of cancer at 78...
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07

Brooklyn, NY, May 25, 1929 — Manhattan, NY, July, 2, 2007

Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died Monday [2 JUL 2007] of cancer, her manager said. She was 78. It had been revealed just last month that Sills was gravely ill with inoperable lung cancer. Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, the coloratura soprano made her opera debut in 1947 in Philadelphia in a bit role in "Carmen." She became a star with the smaller New York City Opera, where she first performed in 1955 in Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus." She was acclaimed for performances in such operas as Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe," Massenet's "Manon" and Handel's "Giulio Cesare." She didn't appear at the Met until 1975, shortly before her retirement from singing, which made it surprising when the Met asked her to sit on its board in 2002.

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The doyenne of British clarinetists, Thea King, died on June 26 in London at age 81. No cause of death was reported.
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
King was a noted champion of obscure clarinet works of the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly those of Bernhard Crusell, Franz Krommer, Louis Spohr, Carl Stamitz and Carl Maria von Weber. An accomplished pianist, she won a piano scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where she was a pupil of Arthur Alexander and clarinetist Frederick Thurston. "In those days it helped if you played two instruments, however poorly," The Daily Telegraph quoted her once saying. At the piano King often accompanied her clarinetist peers, including Gervase de Peyer and Colin Davis.
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