Hershy Kay
Encyclopedia
Hershy Kay was an American composer, arranger, and orchestrator. He is most noteworthy for the orchestrations of several Broadway
shows, and for the ballets he arranged for George Balanchine
's New York City Ballet
.
(1936-1940) where he studied cello, and composition under Randall Thompson
(in whose classes he was a fellow student of Leonard Bernstein
). In New York he played in various pit orchestras and started arranging music to escape playing the cello. Self-taught as an orchestrator, Kay's first professional project was to orchestrate several songs for Brazilian soprano Elsie Houston
’s show at the Rainbow Room
in 1940.
When Leonard Bernstein commissioned Kay to orchestrate his musical comedy On the Town in 1944, Kay became one of the most sought after orchestrators on Broadway. Later collaborations with Bernstein include Peter Pan
(1950) and Candide
(1956). Kay also did orchestrations for Marc Blitzstein
(Juno
), Harvey Schmidt
(110 in the Shade
), Cy Coleman
(Barnum
) and Andrew Lloyd Webber
(Evita).
In 1954, George Balanchine commissioned Kay to compose the score for his ballet Western Symphony
, set in the American West. Kay later wrote the score for Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes
, based on John Philip Sousa
’s music.
A composer in his own right, Hershy Kay’s reconstruction of Louis Moreau Gottschalk
’s Grande Tarantelle for piano and orchestra, later choreographed by Balanchine as Tarantella, led to a renewed interest in Gottschalk’s music. He also composed music for an LP, Mother Goose, with the actors Boris Karloff
, Cyril Ritchard
and Celeste Holm
; this was first released on Caedmon
in 1958.
Kay also orchestrated Sigmund Romberg
's music in a 1963 Columbia Masterworks recording of selections from the 1924 operetta The Student Prince
, starring Roberta Peters
, Jan Peerce
, and Giorgio Tozzi
.
NYCB repertory including links to individual ballets
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
shows, and for the ballets he arranged for George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
.
Biography
The son of a Philadelphia printer, Kay became a student at Philadelphia's Curtis InstituteCurtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
(1936-1940) where he studied cello, and composition under Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.-Career:He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music...
(in whose classes he was a fellow student of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
). In New York he played in various pit orchestras and started arranging music to escape playing the cello. Self-taught as an orchestrator, Kay's first professional project was to orchestrate several songs for Brazilian soprano Elsie Houston
Elsie Houston
Elsie Houston was a Brazilian singer.Elsie Houston was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1902. She was the descendent of confederados, southern plantation owners that had come to Brazil after the American Civil War...
’s show at the Rainbow Room
Rainbow Room
The Rainbow Room was an upscale restaurant and nightclub on the 65th floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-Cuisine:...
in 1940.
When Leonard Bernstein commissioned Kay to orchestrate his musical comedy On the Town in 1944, Kay became one of the most sought after orchestrators on Broadway. Later collaborations with Bernstein include Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1950 musical)
Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, first produced in 1950, with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein...
(1950) and Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
(1956). Kay also did orchestrations for Marc Blitzstein
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...
(Juno
Juno (musical)
Juno is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein, based closely on the 1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey. The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, on March 9, 1959.Despite light moments, the musical,...
), Harvey Schmidt
Harvey Schmidt
Harvey Lester Schmidt is an American composer for musical theatre. He is best known for composing the music for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which ran off-Broadway from 1960 - 2002.-Biography:...
(110 in the Shade
110 in the Shade
110 in the Shade is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Tom Jones, and music by Harvey Schmidt.Based on Nash's 1954 play The Rainmaker, it focuses on Lizzie Curry, a spinster living on a ranch in the American southwest, and her relationships with local sheriff File, a cautious...
), Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
(Barnum
Barnum (musical)
Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
) and Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
(Evita).
In 1954, George Balanchine commissioned Kay to compose the score for his ballet Western Symphony
Western Symphony
Western Symphony is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to music arranged by Hershy Kay. The premiere, Tuesday, September 7th, 1954, at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, was conducted by Leon Barzin and presented in practice clothes...
, set in the American West. Kay later wrote the score for Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (ballet)
Stars and Stripes is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine in 1958, using original music by John Philip Sousa and performed in 5 acts . It lasts an average of 28 minutes...
, based on John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
’s music.
A composer in his own right, Hershy Kay’s reconstruction of Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works...
’s Grande Tarantelle for piano and orchestra, later choreographed by Balanchine as Tarantella, led to a renewed interest in Gottschalk’s music. He also composed music for an LP, Mother Goose, with the actors Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
, Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is probably best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan....
and Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...
; this was first released on Caedmon
Caedmon Audio
HarperCollins Audio is a record label that specializes in audio books and other literary content. Formerly Caedmon Records, the name was changed when the label switched to CD-only production. Its marketing tag-line was Caedmon: a Third Dimension for the Printed Page.Caedmon was formed in 1953 by...
in 1958.
Kay also orchestrated Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
's music in a 1963 Columbia Masterworks recording of selections from the 1924 operetta The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
, starring Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters is an American coloratura soprano.One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York...
, Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
, and Giorgio Tozzi
Giorgio Tozzi
Giorgio Tozzi was for many years a leading bass with the Metropolitan Opera, as well as playing lead roles in nearly every major opera house worldwide.-Career:Tozzi was born George John Tozzi in Chicago, Illinois...
.
Partial Work List
- Cakewalk (arrangements of music by Louis Moreau GottschalkLouis Moreau GottschalkLouis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works...
for New York City BalletNew York City BalletNew York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
) - Grande Tarantelle for Piano and OrchestraTarantella (ballet)Tarantella is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 67 , reconstructed and orchestrated by Hershy Kay...
(reconstruction and arrangement of music by Gottschalk for NYCB) - Western SymphonyWestern SymphonyWestern Symphony is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to music arranged by Hershy Kay. The premiere, Tuesday, September 7th, 1954, at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, was conducted by Leon Barzin and presented in practice clothes...
(arrangements of traditional American melodies for NYCB) - Union JackUnion Jack (ballet)Union Jack is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to traditional British tunes, hornpipe melodies and music-hall songs, ca...
(arrangements of traditional British melodies for NYCB) - Stars and StripesStars and Stripes (ballet)Stars and Stripes is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine in 1958, using original music by John Philip Sousa and performed in 5 acts . It lasts an average of 28 minutes...
(arrangements of John Phillip Sousa for NYCB) - Who Cares?Who Cares? (ballet)Who Cares? is a ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to the songs of George Gershwin in an orchestration by Hershy Kay...
(for NYCB) - The ConcertThe Concert (ballet)The Concert is a ballet made by Jerome Robbins, subsequently New York City Ballet's balletmaster, to Chopin's: *Tanaquil LeClercq*Todd Bolender*Yvonne Mounsey*Robert Barnett*Wilma Curley*John Mandia*Shaun O'Brien...
(for NYCB) - On the Town (original 1944 orchestrations, co-orchestrator with composer Leonard Bernstein)
- Peter PanPeter Pan (1950 musical)Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, first produced in 1950, with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein...
- CandideCandide (operetta)Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
(original 1956 orchestrations, co-orchestrator with composer Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
); and 1971 revival orchestrations without Bernstein) - Once Upon a MattressOnce Upon a MattressOnce Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway...
- A Chorus LineA Chorus LineA Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
- BarnumBarnum (musical)Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
- Evita
- FoxyFoxy (musical)Foxy is a musical with a book by Ian McLellan Hunter and Ring Lardner, Jr., lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and music by Robert Emmett Dolan.Based on Ben Jonson's Volpone, it transports the original play's setting of early-17th century Renaissance Venice to the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898...
- Milk and HoneyMilk and Honey (musical)Milk and Honey is a musical with a book by Don Appell and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The story centers on a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring Israel and is set against the background of the country's fight for recognition as an independent nation...
(with Eddie SauterEddie SauterEdward Ernest Sauter was a composer and jazz arranger who achieved renown among musicians during the swing era.-Biography:...
) - A Flag is BornA Flag is BornA Flag Is Born was a play promoting the creation of a Jewish State in the ancient land of Israel. It opened on Broadway on September 4, 1946. The cast included Paul Muni, Celia Adler and Marlon Brando. Hollywood’s most successful screenwriter, Ben Hecht, was the playwright; it was directed by...
- The Golden AppleThe Golden Apple (musical)The Golden Apple is a musical adaptation of parts of each of the Iliad and Odyssey epics of Homer, with music by Jerome Moross and lyrics by John Treville Latouche...
- Reuben, ReubenReuben, Reuben (opera)Reuben, Reuben is a 1955 "urban folk opera" by Marc Blitzstein. Set in New York's Little Italy and inspired by the Faust legend, it concerns Reuben, a suicidal veteran who has received a medical discharge because he cannot speak...
- Drat! The Cat!Drat! The Cat!Drat! The Cat! is a musical with a book and lyrics by Ira Levin and music by Milton Schafer.Originally called Cat and Mouse, this spoof of late-Victorian melodrama has at its core Alice Van Guilder, who wants to be a career girl at a time when nice young ladies marry well instead of having careers...
- Bernstein's Mass
- On the Twentieth CenturyOn the Twentieth CenturyOn the Twentieth Century is a musical with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Cy Coleman. Part operetta, part farce, part screwball comedy, the story involves the behind-the-scenes relationship of a temperamental actress and a director.-Background:Comden and Green based...
- 110 in the Shade110 in the Shade110 in the Shade is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Tom Jones, and music by Harvey Schmidt.Based on Nash's 1954 play The Rainmaker, it focuses on Lizzie Curry, a spinster living on a ranch in the American southwest, and her relationships with local sheriff File, a cautious...
See also
NYCB repertory including links to individual ballets
External links
- New York City Ballet home page
- NY Times, obituary by Theodre W. Libbey, Jr., December 4th, 1981
- The Hershy Kay Collection, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University