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Fredric Myrow (July 16, 1939 – January 14, 1999) was an American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
. He composed the soundtracks for ''
Soylent Green
''Soylent Green'' is a 1973 American Environmental film, ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on t ...
'', ''
Scarecrow
A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley B ...
'', and ''
Phantasm''.
He was composer in residence of the
Los Angeles Theatre Center
The Los Angeles Theatre Center is an institution in Los Angeles, which is operated by the Latino Theater Company.
In January 2006, the Latino Theater Company won a lease to operate The Los Angeles Theatre Center for 20 years and got a $4 millio ...
in the mid-1980s, and before that at the
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
. By the time of his death in 1999, he had scored dozens of films, collaborated on numerous theater projects, and released albums.
Early life and musical beginnings
Myrow was the son of renowned composer
Josef Myrow Josef Myrow (February 18, 1910 – December 24, 1987 in Los Angeles, California) was a Russian Empire-born composer, known for his work in film scores in the 1940s and 1950s. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award: in 1947 for the song "You Do ...
and grandson of equally renowned music publisher and promoter
Irving Mills
Irving Harold Mills (born Isadore Minsky; January 16, 1894 – April 21, 1985) was an American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz artist promoter. He sometimes used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.
Personal
Mills was ...
.
He moved with his family to Hollywood when he was six, began composing at age nine, and in 1956 studied with
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
in
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...
. Two years later he attended the
University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music
The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...
. In his freshman year, Russian composer
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
called Myrow one of the most inventive young composers he had seen during his tour of the United States. He encouraged the Young Musicians Foundation to commission a major work from Myrow, whose “Symphonic Variations” was played by the Debut Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl when he was 21. It was subsequently performed by the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, and
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.
History
While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, conducted by
Lawrence Foster
Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry. He is currently the artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Marseille Opera and th ...
. Myrow went on to win three Fulbright grants, three Rockefeller grants, and a
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, which allowed him to live and study in Italy, and thence to become a resident composer at the
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
under
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
, where he received a commission for an original work.
Musical career
After the release of his first album, 1965’s "Songs from the Japanese", Myrow decided to move beyond the world of classical music and undertook studies of world music. He was a friend of
Jim Morrison
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredicta ...
and in 1969 provided the music for Morrison's experimental film ''
HWY: An American Pastoral'', with a further theatrical collaboration planned at the time of Morrison's death.
The following year, ''
Leo the Last
''Leo the Last'' is a 1970 British drama film co-written and directed by John Boorman, based on the play ''The Prince'' by George Tabori, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Billie Whitelaw.
Plot
The ennui-afflicted heir to a deposed Europea ...
'' was Myrow's first feature film score.
John Boorman
Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
won Best Director at the 1970
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
for the film. A few years later, in 1973, he scored ''Soylent Green'', laying down a soundtrack that "is an arresting piece of work" with a "wide array of styles and often ingenious arrangements" and ultimately veering into "particularly bizarre an unnerving territory" The same year he scored ''Scarecrow'', and closed the decade by co-writing the celebrated score for the film ''
Phantasm''. In 2015, the soundtrack was re-released on vinyl.
His stage musical “Sure Feels Good” at the Los Angeles Actor’s Theatre led to his joining Los Angeles Theatre Center. During his four-year tenure he produced forty concerts and scored twenty plays. In May 1993, his symphony “Frontiers,” commissioned by the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
was performed by the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...
, another of his works conducted by Lawrence Foster. Myrow conducted the European premiere of the work with the
Halle Orchestra Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
in
Manchester, England
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. The following year his ballet “Mango” premiered. Myrow was also a pianist, and gave live performances of his compositions. The American pianist
Brad Mehldau
Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Mehldau studied music at The New School, and toured and recorded while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Quar ...
dedicated a song in his solo piano suite
Elegiac Cycle to Myrow, entitled "Goodbye Storyteller (for Fred Myrow)". Myrow had died of a heart attack two weeks before Mehldau's recording.
Personal life and death
Fred Myrow and actress
Elana Eden
Elana Eden ( he, אילנה עדן; born Elana Lani Cooper, 1 May 1940) is an Israeli actress of film, television, and stage, best known for her film debut as the title role in 20th Century Fox's biblical epic '' The Story of Ruth'' (1960).
Early ...
were married in 1969. They had three daughters together - Rachael, Shira and Neora - and remained married for three decades until his death, in 1999, of a heart attack, at their Hollywood Hills home. He was 59 years old.
Rachael Myrow, the Senior Editor of
KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk, has said that "My dad’s fame, especially with Phantasm, is for a particular subset of humanity: ''
Gen-X'' males... Every now and then here at KQED, some guy of a certain age will rush up to me and say, 'Rachael Myrow, are you related to Fred Myrow?'"
Filmography
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Myrow, Fred
1939 births
1999 deaths