ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
Biographical Dictionary (1952), page 248. Retrieved 26 December 2013. (3 January 1907 – 23 October 1998) was an American pianist, conductor, and songwriter.
Irwin was born in San Francisco, and raised in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
. With Australian composer Percy Grainger, Irwin studied composition before joining the
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...
in New York City.
The musical theatre composer
Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer/songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I Can't ...
introduced Irwin to composer and songwriter
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
in the 1920s. Irwin would subsequently join Gershwin and pianist Oscar Levant in piano improvisations at Gershwin's apartment. Irwin began a six-year professional relationship with songwriter and composer Irving Berlin, after being introduced to him by Gershwin. As Berlin could not read or write music Irwin would write down music as Berlin composed, often writing music down for Berlin in the middle of the night.
Irwin was professionally engaged as the musical director of touring productions of the musicals '' Oklahoma!'', ''
South Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
'' and ''
The King and I
''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childre ...
'' in the 1940s. In the 1960s Irwin became the choral director for Manhattan's
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
and later the halls staff composer and musical director. Irwin retired in 1979, and his wife Helen, died in 1984. They had a son, Dean, who was a television producer for ABC News. Irwin had lived in Staten Island for many years before his death in 1998.
Selected works
Irwin contributed songs and incidental music to the following musicals:
* '' Sweet and Low'' (1930)
:: "When a Pansy Was a Flower" (with lyrics by
Billy Rose
Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with sh ...
Alberta Nichols
Alberta Nichols (December 3, 1898 – February 4, 1957) was a popular songwriter of the 1930s and 1940s. Together with her husband, lyricist Mann Holiner, they composed over 100 songs, of which their most famous were "Until the Real Thing Comes A ...
:: "Hey Nonny Nonny"
:: "I'm Really Not That Way" (lyrics by McComb)
:: "In Those Good Old Horsecar Days" (lyrics by McComb)
* ''Earl Carroll's Sketch Book 1935'' (1935); music and lyrics by Irwin and others
* '' Portofino'' (1958); music by Irwin and
Louie Bellson
Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...