Pianist and composer George Winston, one of the leading figures in New Age music, died on Sunday of cancer.
The American pianist and composer George Winston (Hart, Michigan, 1949-Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2023) died last Sunday according to an announcement on his own website: “We are deeply saddened to share the news that George Winston has passed on alter a 10-year battle with cancer. George quietly and painlessly left this world while asleep on Sunday, June 4, 2023,” the statement reads. He had undergone “a bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in 2013 at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, that gratefully extended his life by ten years.” He was 74.
Winston incorporated elements of jazz, classical and folk music into his music and was considered one of the key composers of the New Age movement in the 1980s. He sold more than 15 million records and received a Grammy in 1995 for his album Forest. The composer and pianist, who also played harmonica and acoustic guitar, began making music in the 1970s and released a total of sixteen albums, including 1980’s Autumn and December, which appeared two years later, on the Windham Hill label. His last album, Night, was released in May 2022 on RCA. At the end of last year he was still touring, but had to cancel his concerts planned for this year when his illness worsened.