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Our annual retrospective of the major figures in classical music who left us during the year is especially significant for 2007 with the list including the deaths of four of the world's most honored and respected performers: tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Jerry Hadley, cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and soprano Beverly Sills.
"Hark! The herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!'" The author of that immortal Christmas carol is himself commemorated today on the 300th anniversary of his birth. Charles Wesley, Anglican and co-founder with brother John of the Methodist movement, was born Dec. 18, 1707, in England. He is regarded as one of the greatest hymn writers of all time, according to the Charles Wesley Society, an ecumenical group formed to study Wesley's poetry and prose through music, theology, history and literature.
Daniel Levy is a classical pianist who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1947. In addition to being a highly successful musician, Levy has created a career for himself as an author, radio broadcaster and educator...check out his new webpage at www.daniellevypiano.com
Seattle Symphony conductor and music director Gerard Schwarz broke his left leg and ankle last Thursday in a skiing accident. He faces surgery later this week, the SSO reports, with full recovery expected. In fact, the athletic Schwarz was conducting a recording session this morning, seated. He returned from the slopes Friday, thinking it was just a strain, but discovered the breaks at the doctor. He's now mastering a new art--crutches. 
Zara Dolukhanova, a well-known singer died [5 DEC 2007] at the age of 90, in Moscow. The years of her creative activities are closely related with the Soviet Communist years. She was the first actress to play Cinderella in that opera, and Rozina in “Barber of Seville”. Dolukhanova popularized many folk works.
Zara Dolukhanova was born in 1918, in Moscow. Elena Makaryan, her mother, was a musician, and Aghasi Makaryan, her father, played the flute in amateur symphonic orchestras. The singer’s soft and fascinating voice was heard in European, Asian, American and other concert halls. Dolukhanova was a laureate of the Soviet Socialist Countries state prize and Lenin prize. She was awarded Honored Actress title in 1952 and Armenian Civil Actress title in 1955.
Andrew Imbrie, the composer of many arresting and impeccably crafted musical works and a generous teacher to several generations of younger composers, died Wednesday, 5 DEC 2007, at his Berkeley, California home after a long illness. He was 86. Mr. Imbrie's music, which included operas, symphonies, concertos and a wealth of chamber scores, was a predominating presence in the musical life of the Bay Area for many decades. His opera "Angle of Repose," based on Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Opera in 1976.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important and controversial postwar composers who helped shape a new understanding of sound through electronic compositions, died at his home in western Germany. He was 79. Stockhausen, who gained fame through his avant-garde works in the 1960s and '70s and later composed works for huge theaters and other projects, died in the town of Kuerten on Wednesday, 5 DEC 2007, his publisher, the Stockhausen Verlag, said. No cause of death was given.
On Tuesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Elliott Carter celebrates his 99th birthday by attending the first U.S. staging of his characteristically dense opera "What Next?" It's 40 minutes of musical searching by a handful of characters brought together in a car accident. The production includes soprano and new-music specialist Susan Narucki, plus the Juilliard-affiliated ensemble AXIOM and conductor Jeffrey Milarsky.
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