Events in Music
Blue Skies
Dec 7 Diana DeGarmo releases her debut album, "Blue Skies"
Billboard Music Awards
Dec 8 15th Billboard Music Awards: Usher, Alicia Keys, and Toby Keith win
- Dec 12 On This Day launches MusicOrb.com and TodayinSport.com, separate sites for music and sports history, now our music and sport channels
Deaths in Music
- Dec 2 Alicia Markova, English ballerina and choreographer (Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1925-32), dies aged 94
- Dec 2 Kevin Coyne, English musician, dies at 60
- Dec 3 Marek Stachowski, Polish composer (Neusis II; Thakurian Chants), and pedagogue, dies at 68
- Dec 4 Elena Souliotis, Greek soprano, dies of heart failure at 61
- Dec 7 Frederick Fennell, American conductor (Time & Winds), dies at 90
- Dec 7 Jerry Scoggins, American country singer ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett"), dies at 91
- Dec 8 "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, American heavy metal guitarist (Pantera), shot and killed by crazed fan Nathan Gale while performing on stage at 38
- Dec 11 M.S. [Madurai Shanmukhavadivu] Subbulakshmi, Indian singer (1st singer to be awarded the Bharat Ratna), dies at 88
- Dec 11 Margaret Fay Shaw, American photographer, folklorist, and ethno-musicologist, known for her work in the Scottish Hebrides, dies at 101
- Dec 12 Frank Isola, American jazz drummer (Stan Getz; Gerry Mulligan; Mose Allison), dies at 79
- Dec 17 Dick Heckstall-Smith, British jazz-blues saxophonist, dies at 70
- Dec 18 John W. Downey, American composer, dies at 77
- Dec 19 Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano, dies at 82
- Dec 20 (Frank) "Son" Seals, American blues musician ("Nothing But the Truth"), dies from diabetes complications at 62
- Dec 24 Jan van Vlijmen, Dutch composer, dies at 69
- Dec 26 Aki Sirkesalo, Finnish musician, in 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (b. 1962)
- Dec 26 Mieszko Talarczyk, Lead singer/Guitarist of grindcore band, Nasum, in 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (b. 1974)
- Dec 26 Sigurd Køhn, Norwegian jazz musician, in 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (b. 1959)
- Dec 27 (Walter) "Hank" Garland, American Nashville-based country, rock and jazz session guitar virtuoso ("Sugarfoot Rag"; "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame"; "Jingle Bell Rock"), dies of complications from a staph infection at 74
- Dec 30 Artie Shaw [Arthur Arshawsky], American bandleader, jazz clarinetist and actor ("Begin the Beguine"), dies at 94
Composers
Drummers
Guitarists
Pianists
Singers
Songwriters