Showing 372 results

Authority record

Hamlisch, Marvin

  • 80117117
  • Person
  • 1944-06-02 - 2012-08-06

Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) was born in Manhattan to Austrian Jewish immigrant parents. He was an EGOT-winning composer and conductor.

Pons, Lily

  • 81028139
  • Person
  • 1898-04-12 - 1976-02-13

North, Alex

  • 83174977
  • Person
  • 1910-12-04 - 1991-09-08

Zaret, Hy

  • 85121454
  • Person
  • 1907-08-21 - 2007-07-02

Hy Zaret (August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was born Hyman Harry Zaritsky in New York City to Max and Dora Zaritsky, who emigrated from Russia in the 1890s. Zaret attended public schools, but was not an enthusiastic student. Despite his small stature, he played football at a local community center. He attended West Virginia University and Brooklyn Law School, where he received his LLB. Zaret practiced law for a few years and legally changed his name in 1934. His first major lyrical success came in 1935 when he wrote the words to “Dedicated to You” with Saul Chaplin and Sammy Cahn. He served as a sergeant in the War Music Division during World War II and wrote many war-related tunes, including “Song of the Army Nurse Corps” and “Soldiers of God (The Chaplain’s Song).” He also wrote English lyrics for “The Partisan” and “La Marsellaise.” In 1944, he wrote the lyrics to “One Meat Ball”, which became a success for the Andrews Sisters. Zaret’s biggest hit, “Unchained Melody”, written for the 1955 prison film Unchained, received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Song. Recorded by more than 300 artists, the song saw renewed interest in the 1990s with its inclusion in the movie Ghost. In the ensuing years, it received multiple awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone magazine. Beginning in the early 1950’s, Zaret began writing lyrics (usually in conjunction with composer Lou Singer) for children’s educational songs and public service announcements for which he received numerous accolades. His efforts include Ballads for the Age of Science, Little Songs on Big Subjects, Little Songs for Better Schools, Little Songs for Busy Voters, Little Songs for Living Longer, Little Songs on Fire Prevention, Spotlight Ballads, Little Songs for the American Cancer Society, Sing-Along for Mental Health, and others. Zaret’s marriage to Shirley Goidel produced two sons, Thomas (who predeceased him) and Robert. Zaret passed away in 2007 at the age of 99.

Arnold, Hubert

  • 85173096
  • Person
  • 1945-03-02 - 2019-08-22

Born and raised in Temple, Texas, Arnold attended Michigan State University where he earned undergraduate and master's degrees in Music Composition. His music career began in West Point, New York as an arranger for the United States Military Academy Band. He established a successful music career in New York City where he worked with numerous entertainers over the years. Notably, he was the music director and accompanist for the legendary Margaret Whiting, working with her for over 25 years.
His compositions in classical, Latin and jazz were commissioned, published, and recorded by organizations around the country. Additionally, Tex has written orchestrations for the Lincoln Center American Songbook series and for Carnegie Hall tributes.
For six years, Arnold participated as mentor and accompaniest in the Great American Songbook Foundation’s annual Songbook Academy event for teens.

Scharf, Walter

  • 85327132
  • Person
  • 1910-08-01 - 2003-02-24

Walter Scharf (August 1, 1910 - February 24, 2003) was an American film composer and conductor who worked with Alice Faye and Rudy Vallée. When Vallée moved to Hollywood, Scharf followed. In the course of his Hollywood career, Scharf composed, arranged and/or conducted the music to over 100 feature films including Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Funny Girl, and The Cheyenne Social Club. His prodigious career also included television and stage plays. From 1948 to 1954, Scharf worked as the musical director for the Phil Harris – Alice Faye Show, arranging and composing music for the radio show.

Martin, Tony

  • 85376559
  • Person
  • 1913-12-25 - 2012-07-27

Judy, Richard W.

  • 88267184
  • Person

Richard Judy was an exchange student in Moscow from 1958-1959, where he obtained 18 Soviet-era x-ray film recordings of jazz music. At the time, jazz music was illegal in the Soviet Union.

Cook, Will Marion

  • 88663576
  • Person
  • 1869-01-27 - 1944-07-20

Will Marion Cook (January 27,1869 – July 20, 1944) was a musician, conductor, and composer born in Washington, D.C. to John Hartwell Cook and Marion Isabelle Lewis, free people of color before the Civil War. For a short time after his father’s death in 1879, Will lived with his maternal grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here, he is said to have heard “real Negro melodies” and folk music. In 1880, he returned to Washington, D.C. where he began to take music seriously. At the age of fourteen, he enrolled in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied for four years. After completing his studies there, he traveled to Germany where he studied for two years at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, training under Heinrich Jacobsen. Cook studied under Czech composer Antonin Dvorák at New York’s National Conservatory of Music.
Inspired by Dvorak, Cook began to experiment with compositions that maintained the integrity of the Negro spiritual. In 1898 Cook’s first composed score, for the one-act musical comedy Clorindy, the Origin of the Cakewalk, met with critical acclaim. The show’s successful run on the Roof Garden of the Casino Theatre in New York established Cook as a gifted composer. He made history with Clorindy by becoming the first African American to conduct a white theater orchestra.
In 1899 he married Abbie Mitchell, the show’s leading actress. They had two children, Marion and Mercer, before separating in 1906.
In 1900, Cook made his mark as a composer with several musical comedy productions often writing for the Williams and Walker Company (WWC), an all-black comedy troupe. His landmark score for their production of In Dahomey (1902-1905) in particular, not only brought Cook even more success, but also established the WWC as the leading black troupe of the decade. The show also marked a turning point for African American representation in vaudeville theater. The show ran for a total of four years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

Raymond, Jack

  • 91063340
  • Person
  • 1923-11-19 - 2016-02-11

Cole, Natalie

  • 91116075
  • Person
  • 1950-02-06 - 2015-12-31

Voynow, Dick

  • 93022669
  • Person
  • c. 1900 - September 15, 1944

Maurice Seymour

  • 95022488
  • Corporate body
  • 1900-1995

Maurice Seymour refers to a team of two brothers, Maurice (1900-1993) and Seymour (1902-1995) Zeldman, Russian Jews who specialized in photographing dancers and other performers. They formed Maurice Seymour Studios in Chicago. When one of the brothers decided to move to New York, they both legally changed their names to Maurice Seymour.

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