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George Crumb is dead

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb dies at his home in Pennsylvania at 92. George Crumb, a composer who drew inspiration from the traditions of Asia and his native Appalachia to create music of astonishing impact, died on Sunday at his home in Media, Pennsylvania, his record label Bridge Records announced…

Paavo Heininen

Finnish composer Paavo Heininen dies. Finnish composer Paavo Heininen died on 18 January in Järvenpää at the age of 84. He was considered one of Finland‘s foremost contemporary composers. Heininen, born in Helsinki on 13 January 1938, was the last pupil of Aare Merikanto. Heininen received further training in Cologne…

Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier dies at the age of 90. Mary Lucier posted just over an hour ago on her Facebook account the death of her ex-husband, Alvin Lucier, at the age of ninety. A composer of experimental music and sound art, he focused on the study of acoustic phenomena and auditory…

Gordon Crosse

English composer Gordon Crosse passes away. The English composer Gordon Crosse (Bury, 1937-Suffolk, 2021) died on 21 November at the age of 83. The starting point of his work was, like that of many of his contemporaries, serialism and dodecaphonic music, particularly Webern, which he combined (like Maxwell Davies) with…

Mario Lavista

Mexican composer Mario Lavista dies. The Mexican composer Mario Lavista (Mexico D. F., 1943-Ciudad de México, 2021), one of the most outstanding contemporary Hispanic artists, has died at the age of 78. Although he began his studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico D. F., his work offered…

Udo Zimmermann

Udo Zimmermann dies at the age of 78. German composer and opera conductor Udo Zimmermann died on Friday night in his native Dresden at the age of 78. He had been suffering for years from a rare neurodegenerative disease that prevented him from composing. In 1974, Zimmermann founded the Studio…

Luis de Pablo

The Spanish composer Luis de Pablo dies. Yesterday, 10 October, the Spanish composer Luis de Pablo (Bilbao, 1930; Madrid, 2021) passed away and the news on La 1 news programme devoted a meagre twenty seconds to the story… If he had seen it, the composer would have been devastated, and…

Koichi Sugiyama

Koichi Sugiyama dies at the age of 90. Japanese composer Koichi Sugiyama (Nagoya, 1931-2021), known above all for being one of the most important composers of soundtracks for anime cartoons and video games, including the famous Dragon Quest saga, part of which was performed last July at the opening ceremony of…

Richard H. Kirk

Richard H. Kirk, of Cabaret Voltaire, dies. Richard Harold Kirk, founding member of the British electronic music band Cabaret Voltaire, died today at the age of 65, according to Mute Records, for whom he recorded some of his work, both in Cabaret Voltaire and as a solo artist. Kirk founded…

Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis dies at the age of 96. Mikis Theodorakis, the most famous of Greek contemporary composers, died today, Thursday, in Athens, aged 96. According to his website, he died at 8.35 a.m. of cardiorespiratory arrest. The author of an enormous body of work, he became famous above all for…

Siegfried Matthus

Siegfried Matthus, the author of “Judith”, dies. The German composer, conductor and festival conductor Siegfried Matthus died on Friday 27 August at the age of 87. Born in Mallenuppen, which today belongs to Russia and was then East Prussia in the Weimar Republic, after World War II his family remained…