Andre Previn

Four-Oscar, 10-Grammy-winning composer, arranger, adapter, conductor, pianist, and music director. AKA Andreas Priwin. A child prodigy, he joined MGM to work on film scores when was 16. He was expert first at adapting stage hits for the cinema -- Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, Porgy and Bess, Bells Are Ringing, Gigi, My Fair Lady. He basically wrote a new version of Paint Your Wagon for film with Alan Jay Lerner. He wrote his own scores -- Bad Day at Black Rock, It's Always Fair Weather, Elmer Gantry, the 1962 Long Day's Journey Into Night. He wrote in every category of Western art music -- songs, chamber music, orchestral compositions, solo piano, even opera. He wrote the incidental music for Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favor. And he was a great jazzman. He could do it all, and by God he did. Via the L.A. Times.