Deaths in Music on August 15

  • August
  • 1576 Baliny Valentin Bakfark, composer, dies
  • 1600 Johann Baptista Serranus, composer, dies at 60
  • 1728 Marin Marais, French composer, dies at 72
  • 1798 Felice Alessandri, composer, dies at 50
  • 1848 Timothy Olmstead, early American composer, dies at 88
  • 1853 Giovanni Battista Polledro, Italian composer, dies at 72
  • 1907 Joseph Joachim, German violinist (Hungarian Concerto), dies at 76
  • 1914 Anatoly Liadov, Russian composer (Baba yaga), dies at 59
  • 1918 Heinrich Köselitz [Peter Gast], German composer, dies at 64
  • 1935 Gerard Brucken Fock, Dutch composer and painter, dies at 75
  • 1936 Stanislaw Niewiadomski, composer, dies at 76
  • 1936 Henry Lytton, British actor and opera singer (The Mikado), dies at 71
  • 1951 Artur Schnabel, Austrian pianist (Reflections on Music), dies at 69
  • 1959 Blind Willie McTell, American ragtime singer and guitarist, dies at 61
  • 1963 John Powell, American composer, dies at 80
  • 1966 Jan Kiepura, Polish vocalist and actor (Her Wonderful Lie, Give Us this Night), dies of heart attack at 64

  • 1968 Edward Kilenyi, Sr. [Ede Kilényi], composer and teacher (Clipped Wings, Outside the Law), dies at 84
  • 1970 Karl August Andersen, composer, dies at 66
  • 1972 Alf Hurum, Norwegian composer, dies at 89
  • 1978 Harrison Kerr, American composer, dies at 80
  • 1985 Richard Yardumian, American composer (Creator Spirit), dies at 68
  • 1990 Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
  • 1992 Jackie Edwards, Jamaican songwriter (Keep On Running), dies at 53 or 54
  • 1995 Erbie Bowser, American blues and jazz pianist, dies at 77
  • 2003 Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
  • 2004 Semiha Berksoy, first Turkish opera singer (b. 1910)
  • 2007 Dave Hassinger, American recording engineer and record producer, dies at 80
  • 2007 Richard Bradshaw, British opera conductor, (b. 1944)
  • 2008 Jerry Wexler, American music producer who coined the term "rhythm and blues" (Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan), dies from congestive heart failure at 91
  • 2012 Bob Birch, American musician (Elton John), commits suicide at 56
  • 2014 Licia Albanese, Italian-born American operatic soprano, dies at 105
  • 2015 Gordon "Jazz" Summers, British music manager (Wham, Snow Patrol), dies at 71
  • 2018 Jim Dickinson, American record producer (Mud Boy), dies at 67

August in History