“Music suffered heavy losses in 2016,” write Tom Huizenga and other NPR producers on Monday (12/19) at National Public Radio. “We bid unexpected farewells to the very brightest stars—David Bowie and Prince—but we also lost masters from every corner of the music world, from classical composers and jazz greats to world music superstars, soul singers, country giants, prog-rock pioneers and record producers.” In the classical field, the writers note the deaths of composer/conductor Pierre Boulez; Jane Little, bassist in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for more than 71 years; composer Peter Maxwell Davies; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor and founder of Concentus Musicus Wien; Sir Neville Marriner, conductor and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields founder; soprano Marni Nixon, who voiced heroines in Hollywood’s West Side Story and The King and I , among others, and was also a contemporary-music specialist; countertenor Russell Oberlin; experimental composer Pauline Oliveros; and Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. Included are a photo gallery and sound clips, and the list also cites victims of 2016’s mass shooting in Orlando in June and the fire in December at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, California, who died “doing one of the things they enjoyed most—dancing among family, friends and strangers. … The music won’t stop, but neither will the memories, vigilance and love.”
Posted December 23, 2016
