Irwin Kostal
Irwin Kostal James ( born October 1, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois, † November 23, 1994 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California ) was an American arranger, composer of film music and conductor. In particular he is known for his collaboration with the Sherman brothers as well as the musical director of several Disney musicals, including Mary Poppins (1964). For the musical arrangement and direction of West Side Story and The Sound of Music - My Dreams (1965 ) he was excellent in each case with an " Oscar".
Life
Irwin Kostal was born on October 1, 1911 in Chicago. Even as a child he learned to play the piano and studied in local libraries scores of such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy. Soon it was clear for him to want to become an arranger. Kostal studied in his hometown at the American Conservatory of Music, worked with Art Van Damme. His first professional job as an arranger was based in Chicago NBC radio show Design for Listening. He then went to New York City, where he arranged the music for Sid Caesar's hugely successful television series Your Show of Shows (1950). During this time he also worked as an arranger or a pianist for bandleader as Vaughan Monroe or Al Nevins and on Broadway. There he developed into a major arranger of musicals. Together with Sid Ramin, he orchestrated the original stage production of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, and later of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ". Also in the film version of West Side Story Kostal was as an arranger with it, which earned him an "Oscar " and a " Grammy ".
This was followed by the order of Walt Disney, the overall musical line of the musical Mary Poppins to take over (1964). It succeeded so well Kostal to weave the music of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman at a compelling tapestry of sound that his music processing is still used in the classroom for aspiring arrangers. Another major success was then Kostals 1965, the film version of the musical The Sound of Music - My Dreams by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, also acted with Julie Andrews in the lead role, for their TV show Kostal in the same year also the musical director.
There were other musical projects with the Sherman brothers, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and The daredevil flying witch in her bed (1971 ), but both failed to match the success of Mary Poppins. Also in 1973 orchestrated by Kostal Broadway production of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's Gigi was not a success, nor the first American- Soviet film co-production The Blue Bird ( The Blue Bird, 1976).
After the overall musical direction of Pete's Dragon ( Pete's Dragon, 1977) Kostal took over for the Disney Studios in 1982 and the new recording digital music to the animated classic Fantasia ( 1940). Although he was used the original arrangements by Leopold Stokowski, stirred against this new recording of some protest, so the movie will be shown since 1990 with Stokowski's original music recording. 1983 Kostal wrote the soundtrack and the theme song to the Oscar-nominated Disney animated short film Mickey's Christmas story ( Mickey's Christmas Carol ).
Irwin Kostal died on 23 November 1994 in Studio City from a heart attack while he held office as President of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers.
The Disney Company appointed him in 2004 posthumously to " Disney Legend " ( " Disney Legend" ).
Filmography
Awards
Won
Nomination