MUMBAI: Legendary music composer and arranger of several Broadway plays and films, Marvin Hamlisch passed away on Monday in Los Angeles after suffering from a brief illness.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Terre.
Aged 68, the legend was principal conductor of the Pasadena Pops Orchestra and had also composed and arranged the scores for dozens of movies including ‘The Sting’ and the Broadway hit ‘A Chorus Line’ amongst others.
Hamlisch was one of the only 11 people to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and two Golden Globes. He was also one of only two people to have won those four prizes and also a Pulitzer Prize.
His last concert was on 21 July at the Los Angeles County Arboretum with a massive audience of 4,000 people. His next concert was scheduled for 8 September and he was also slated to headline a gala benefit, ‘Marvin Hamlisch and Friends’ for the Pasadena Symphony and Pops on 15 September.
Pasadena Symphony and Pops CEO Paul Jan Zdunek said, “Just two weeks ago he was on the stage with Michael Feinstein – the performance of a lifetime, full of energy and humour. We are still reeling with the news. Marvin set us into a new era of music-making and stature. We don’t know what the future holds, but we will be working on it, obviously, once this shocking news has died down.”
In a career spanning over four decades, the legend has composed more than 40 film scores including ‘Sophie’s Choice’, ‘Ordinary People’, ‘The Way We Were’, ‘Take the Money and Run’ and more. He was working on a new musical, ‘Gotta Dance’ at the time of his death and was scheduled to write the score for a new film on Liberace, ‘Behind the Candelabra’. The composer was also scheduled to fly to Nashville to see a production of his musical ‘The Nutty Professor’.