Events in Music
Music History
Dec 7 Noël Coward's "Easy Virtue" premieres in NYC
Music Premiere
Dec 8 George S. Kaufman and Irving Berlin's musical "The Cocoanuts" starring the Marx Brothers opens at the Lyric Theatre, NYC; runs for 276 performances
- Dec 14 Alban Berg's first opera, "Wozzeck" premieres at the Berlin State Opera.
Birthdays in Music
- Dec 1 Jaime Mendoza-Nava, Bolivian-American composer and conductor, born in La Paz, Bolizia (d. 2005)
- Dec 3 Ferlin Husky, American country singer (Born to Lose; Gone), born in Desloge, Missouri (d. 2011)
- Dec 8 Jimmy Smith, American jazz musician and organist (Walk on the Wild Side), born in Norristown, Pennsylvania (d. 2005)
Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990)
Dec 8 American vaudeville, stage, and screen singer ("The Candy Man"), dancer, actor (Ocean's 11), and Rat Pack member, born in NYC, New York
- Dec 12 (Michael) "Dodo" Marmarosa, American big band and bebop jazz pianist, composer, and arranger (Artie Shaw), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2002)
- Dec 12 Vladimir Shainsky, Soviet and Russian composer, born in Kyiv, Ukraine (d. 2017)
Dick Van Dyke (97 years old)
Dec 13 American Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award-winning actor, singer, and dancer (The Dick Van Dyke Show - "Rob Petrie": Bye Bye Birdie; Mary Poppins; The Comic; Diagnosis: Murder), born in West Plains, Missouri
- Dec 15 Jack Rothstein, British concert violinist (London Czech Trio), conductor (Viennese Orchestra of London), and session player (The Beatles - "I Am the Walrus"; "Within You Without You"; Paul McCartney - “Here Today”), born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 2001)
- Dec 17 Rijk de Gooyer, Dutch actor, comedian and singer (Black Rider; Rififi in Amsterdam), born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 2011)
- Dec 19 Robert Sherman, American Grammy and Academy Award-winning songwriter, with his brother, Robert (Mary Poppins; The Jungle Book; "You're Sixteen"), born in NYC, New York (d. 2012)
- Dec 20 Vlastimir Nikolovski, Macedonian composer, born in Prileb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now North Macedonia) (d. 2001)
- Dec 22 Thomas Christian David, Austrian flutist, conductor, choral director, and composer, born in Wels, Austria (d. 2006)
- Dec 24 Claude Frank, German-American concert pianist and pedagogue, born in Nuremberg, Germany (d. 2014)
- Dec 24 Mohammed Rafi, Indian actor and playback singer, born in Kotla Sultan Singh, India (d. 1980)
- Dec 24 Yafa Yarkoni, Israeli singer ("Road to Jerusalem"; "Don't Say Goodbye, Say I Will See You"), born in Mandatory Palestine (d. 2012)
- Dec 27 Allan Blank, American composer, born in NYC, New York (d. 2013)
- Dec 28 Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, and writer (Touch of Class, Mozambique), born in Ulm, Germany (d. 2002)
- Dec 31 Jaap Schröder, Dutch violinist, conductor (Academy of Ancient Music), musicologist, and pedagogue, born in Amsterdam (d. 2020)
Deaths in Music
- Dec 1 Vicente Arregui Garay, Spanish composer, dies at 54
- Dec 2 Julio Garreta, Spanish composer (Sardanes), dies at 50
- Dec 9 Eugène Gigout, French organist (St Augustin de Paris, 1863-1925), and composer (10 pièces pour orgue), dies at 81
- Dec 19 José Ignacio Quintón, Puerto-Rican composer (El coquí; Requiem por Angel Mislán), dies at 44
