In Their Own Words: Remembering Those Who Died in 2024

The American novelist and essayist Cynthia Ozick reminds us that “we often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” Or put more colloquially, perhaps, by Joni Mitchell, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.”

We, however, know full well what we had and what now is gone, as we remember those who died in 2024: those we know from our community and those we never met, but who spoke to us through their work. Their influence on our lives most certainly deserves our gratitude.

Ave atque vale. May their memories be for a blessing.

Thanks to Julie Dillon, Daniel Goldberg, Kari Hurley, Keegan Morris, Carolyn Paulin, and Marilyn Rea Beyer for their contributions.

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Our WTTW-WFMT Family

Daniel Dillon

71, Husband of Vice President of Development Julie Dillon

Kathryn Goldberg

72, Mother of WFMT producer Daniel Goldberg

Stephen Hale

85, American photographer

Michael “Mickey” Loewenstein

90, WTTW chief scenic designer of iconic programs Sneak Previews, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Soundstage, and more.

Robert “Robin” MacNeil

93, Canadian-American journalist, anchor who co-founded The Robert MacNeil Report, later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Cynthia Malek

82, WTTW Assistant Director for national PBS programs Soundstage, Sneak Previews, The Merry Widow, Hansel and Gretel, Die Fledermaus, The Frugal Gourmet and innovative local productions including Nightwatch, Image Union, and Chicago Tonight.

Don Tait

82, WFMT program host 1972-2007
*died December 2023

Paul Vermel

99, Music Director and Conductor of the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, others. Professor of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Husband of longtime WFMT producer Carolyn Paulin.

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Our Chicago Family

Steve Albini

61, American musician, record producer, audio engineer, and music journalist. Founder, owner and principal engineer at Electrical Audio, a recording studio complex in Chicago

Jan Burda

81, Musician, luthier, music educator, founder of numerous music organizations, including Hogeye Music in Evanston

Elsa Charlston

91, Soprano
“As singers, we stop earlier than pianist or violinists do, but the commitment continues, and it’s terribly important for that time to be taken up by giving back what you’ve learned. That’s just extremely important. It’s a part of the full circle of life.”

Cliff Colnot

76, Conductor who frequently led Civic Orchestra and CSO MusicNOW concerts

Scott Craig

89, Peabody and Emmy award-winning filmmaker and documentarian

Mark Damisch

68, American concert pianist, former three-term mayor of Northbrook
“All I want to do is leave the world a little bit better than I found it.”

Sir Andrew Davis

80, English keyboardist, conductor, Lyric Opera of Chicago Music Director 2000-2021
“I took an entrance exam in classics in New College, Oxford, but then a couple of weeks later I took the organ scholarship trials at King’s College, Cambridge, which much to my surprise I won, so that was the end of classics for me.”

Gerald Fisher

79, Chicago-based founder of classical and arts record label Proteus Entertainment, managed classical division at Warner Bros Music Group WEA, reviewer and calendar for Chicago Classical Review

Robert Fitzpatrick

84, Toronto-born American arts administrator who was director and CEO of the MCA Chicago from 1998-2008

Joe Flaherty

82, American actor/writer; SCTV cast member

Mitzi Gaynor

93, Chicago-born actress/singer/dancer known for South Pacific, Les Girls

Charles Geyer

79, Joliet-born orchestral trumpet player with tenures at Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Little Symphony, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Music of the Baroque

Lita Grier

87, Chicago-based composer and radio executive

Ella Jenkins

100, American singer-songwriter, The First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song”
“You’ll sing a song and I’ll sing a song, and we’ll sing a song together.”

Quincy Jones

91, Chicago-born multi-Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, composer, arranger, producer, whose work, beginning in the 1950s, touched every aspect of American music.
“Check your egos at the door.”

Ron Keller

84, Leader of the Naperville Municipal Band for 54 years

Tschu Ho Lee

91, Korean-American violinmaker and pedagogue

Ann Lurie

79, Chicago philanthropist

Bill Melton

79, White Sox Home Run king, broadcaster

Lee Newcomer

81, American violist who owned Chicago’s Performer’s Music sheet music store in the Fine Arts Building
“An employee once asked me why I keep up. The store is a living thing.”

Bob Newhart

94, Oak Park-born monologist and comic actor
“Tension is very important to comedy. And the release of the tension – that’s the laugh.”

Seiji Ozawa

88, Japanese conductor (BSO, Ravinia) recordings with CSO
“A musician’s special flavor comes out with age. His playing at that stage may have more interesting qualities than at the height of his career.”

Paul Phillips

77, CSO violinist 1980-2020

Sidney Weiss

95, American violinist; onetime member of CSO and 15-year concertmaster of the LA Phil

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Our Classical Music Family

Adam Abeshouse

63, American classical music record producer

H. Leslie Adams

91, American composer

Lucine Amara

99, American soprano

Adam Boeker

27, Canadian pianist, competed in BBC Young Musician 2012

Norman Carol

95, Longtime Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster (1966-1994)

Michael Cavanagh

62, Canadian Opera director

David Cripps

Horn player who was first performer of John Williams’s Star Wars horn theme

Howard Crook

77, France-based American tenor specializing in early music, American tenor specializing in early music

Richard Dyer

82, American classical music critic

Péter Eötvös

80, Hungarian composer, former director of Ensemble Intercontemporain

Oscar Ghiglia

85, Italian guitarist

Sarah Gibson

38, American pianist and much-commissioned composer

Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez

74, Spanish conductor with an international career
“Music, like any art, requires a relatively low percentage of inspiration and a lot of work.”

Zakir Hussain

73, Eminent Indian tabla player

Christopher Hyde-Smith

88, British flute player who founded the British Flute Society

Eugen Indic

76, Yugoslav-born French-American pianist

Patrick Ireland

100, Violist — founding violist of the Allegri String Quartet and the first viola teacher at the Menuhin School

James Irsay

American pianist and classical music broadcaster (WBAI, WQXR, WKCR)

Byron Janis

95, American pianist, Horowitz student, discovered two works of Chopin

Benjamin Luxon

87, British baritone, created title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave
“I first started to work with [Benjamin Britten] in 1963. I was a country boy. I can honestly say I didn’t know very much about anything.”

Robert Lyall

76, American arts conductor and administrator; General and Artistic Director Emeritus New Orleans Opera

Harold Meltzer

58, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist

Antonio Meneses

66, Brazilian cellist

Solomon Mikowsky

88, Pianist, Manhattan School of music faculty member, teacher to Simone Dinnerstein, Kirill Gerstein, Wesley Farouk, Xiayin Wang, et al

Michael Murray

81, American organist

Linh Hong Nguyen

25, Vietnamese pianist who had just completed a Master’s Degree at Bard College, killed by vehicle

Jim Nicolson

91, American Harpsichordist & Virginalist
“I haven’t had a typical career at all, but I was able to find my experiences, and it’s been a good run.”

Kumi Ogano

69, Japanese pianist who championed music of Miyoshi, Takemitsu, and other contemporary Japanese and Korean composers

Janusz Olejniczak

72, Polish pianist and teacher, off-screen pianist and hand double for Adrien Brody in the film The Pianist.

György Pauk

88, Hungarian violinist and pedagogue

Nigel Perrin

76, British vocalist and conductor; the founding countertenor of the King’s Singers

Ewa Podleś

71, Polish coloratura contralto

Maurizio Pollini

82, Italian pianist
“One is in such danger of being in a closed compartment as a concert pianist. I think an artist should keep his eyes open to what is going on around him.”

Wolfgang Rihm

72, German composer

Stewart Robertson

75, Scottish conductor, music director of Glimmerglass Opera, Zurich Ballet

Jay David Saks

79, American music producer, 13 Grammys (53 nominations) for recordings from Met Opera, musical theater, and leading orchestras

Peter Schickele

88, Composer, musical parodist who “discovered” P.D.Q. Bach
“There are a lot of people who are not only surprised I write serious music, but also disappointed, like ‘Here’s another clown who wants to play Hamlet…’”

Paul Schoenfield

77, American composer and pianist
“[My] works do for Hasidic music what Astor Piazzolla did for the Argentine tango.”

Leif Segerstam

80, Finnish conductor, violinist, violist and pianist, composer of 354 symphonies
“It is very beautiful what you played, but you are forgetting one thing that makes it tomorrow too loud.”

Nina Svetlanova

92, Russian-American pianist and pedagogue (Joanne Polk, Lera Auerbach, Roberto Hidalgo, others)
“I was so crazy about ballet that I saw Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with Galina Ulanova 27 times.”

Alexander Waugh

60, English writer and opera critic

Amnon Weinstein

84, Luthier who launched the Violins of Hope project

Mark Westcott

75, American pianist, bronze medal winner in 1969 Van Cliburn competition

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Our Arts and Media Family

Joan Acocella

78, Dance and cultural critic for The New Yorker, New York Review of Books

Paul Auster

77, American author and film director
“If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.”

Aston “Family Man” Barrett

77, Reggae electric bass pioneer and band leader for Bob Marley and The Wailers

John Barth

93, American Novelist

Jim Beard

63, keyboardist, composer, arranger (Steely Dan, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, and others)

María Benítez

82, American flamenco dancer, choreographer, and teacher

Dickey Betts

80, Guitarist and Co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band

Marshall Brickman

85, Screenwriter (Annie Hall, Sleeper, Manhattan) satirist (The New Yorker)

Alice Brock

83, American chef, author, and inspiration for Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”

Janice Burgess

72, Children’s Television executive, writer, producer

Eric Carmen

74, American musician, Raspberries lead singer, solo hits used Rachmaninoff themes
“As a writer, l’ve always been the sum total of my influences, and those are all over the spectrum: Rachmaninov, the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, Burt Bacharach and Leonard Bernstein, the Rolling Stones and the Small Faces.”

Jimmy Carter

100, 39th President of the United States

Gavin Creel

48, American actor, singer, songwriter who won Grammy, Tony, Drama Desk, and Olivier awards for his work in musical theater
“Not living is the one thing i have learned so far during this time that is NO LONGER AN OPTION/EVER AGAIN. live. if you are alive LIVE” — via text to Benj Pasek

Sandra Crouch

81, American gospel music performer, songwriter

Alain Delon

88, Icon of French Cinema
“Love is the one emotion actors allow themselves to believe.”

Michaela Mabinty DePrince

29, Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer, youngest dancer in Dance Theatre of Harlem’s history
“I’m still trying to change the way people see black dancers that we can become delicate dancers, that we can be a ballerina.”

Phil Donahue

88, Trailblazing American media personality

Lou Donaldson

98, American alto saxophonist

Christopher Durang

75, American Tony-award winning playwright

Bob Edwards

76, Longtime anchor for NPR’s Morning Edition

Elwood Edwards

74, American broadcaster, copywriter, voice actor
“You’ve got mail!”

Tom Fowler

73, Bass player for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Jean-Luc Ponty

Ramona Fradon

97, Illustrator/DC Comics: Aquaman, Metamorpho

Nikki Giovanni

81, Renowned American poet
“Killing is a lack of creation. It’s a lack of imagination. It’s a lack of understanding who you are and your place in the world. Life is an interesting and a good idea.”

Louis Gossett, Jr.

87, American actor and folk singer, co-author (with Richie Havens) of Handsome Johnny.

Lorraine Graves

66, groundbreaking Dance Theater of Harlem ballerina

Trella Hart

American vocalist, ’60s-era PAMS radio jingles star

Roy Haynes

99, pioneering American modern jazz drummer

Bob Heil

83, Designer of audio systems for live concerts
“Voicing [pipe organs] taught me to listen. Very few people know how to listen. Listening, you’ve got to mentally go in and dissect.”

Cissy Houston

91, American gospel and session singer, member of The Sweet Inspirations, mother of Whitney Houston

Judith Jamison

81, Iconic American dancer, choreographer, and artistic director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
“You have to dance unencumbered. There’s no other way to move. The idea of dance is freedom. It is not exclusiveness, it’s inclusiveness.”

Norman Jewison

97, Canadian film director of In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck, and more

Glynis Johns

100, British actor (A Little Night Music, Mary Poppins, Under Milkwood, and more)
“I wanted to be a scientist. I would’ve loved to go on and on and on at the university. But you can’t do everything in life.”

Laurie Johnson

96, English composer of The Avengers, Dr. Strangelove, and more

James Earl Jones

93, Legendary American actor
“If I hadn’t been a stutterer, I would never have been an actor.”

Kris Kristofferson

88, American singer, songwriter, actor
“Just the words and melody – that’s what moves your emotions.”

Phil Lesh

84, Grateful Dead bassist and composer

David Mallett

75, American singer-songwriter

John Mayall

90, Pioneer of British blues
“To be honest, I don’t think anyone really knows exactly what [the blues] is. I just can’t stop playing it.”

Mary McFadden

85, American art collector, editor, fashion designer, and writer

Melanie (Melanie Safka-Schekeryk)

76, Mononymous American folk-rock singer, composer of Lay Down (Candles in the Rain,) Brand New Key, and others
“My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward.”

Sergio Mendes

83, Brazilian musician who helped make bossa nova popular outside of Brazil
“The word is ‘joy.’ ‘Allegria.’ The next party. I’m ready.”

Giuseppe “Beppe” Menegatti

95, Legendary Italian director of ballet, theater, and opera, whose productions included 17 at La Scala

N. Scott Momaday

89, Pulitzer-winning Native American author whose book, House Made of Dawn, helped begin the Native American Renaissance
“Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it.”

Shigeichi Negishi

100, Invented of the Sparko Box, earliest prototype of and first commercial karaoke machine

Charles Osgood

91, American broadcaster, author, former host of CBS Sunday Morning
“You bring your own experience and emotions to radio that you don’t to television. I do think that radio is more visual. It’s a paradox but it’s true.”

Bernice Johnson Reagon

81, American civil rights activist, Founder of The Freedom Singers, Sweet Honey in the Rock
“When you’re in the civil rights movement,…for the first time, those old songs, you understand and a way that nobody could ever teach you.”

Sarah Rice

68, American theatre actress, theremin player; original Johanna in Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’

Chita Rivera

91, American Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree and Tony Award winning actress/dancer/singer
“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song. That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m really so lucky to be able to do what I love.”

David Sanborn

78, Versatile and influential American saxophonist

Richard Serra

85, Sculptor

Tom Shales

79, Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic
“People who respect TV are the ones I respect. It’s the ones who wipe their feet on it whom I probably write nasty things about.”

Marlena Shaw

81, American jazz, blues, and soul singer

Richard M. Sherman

95, American songwriter who made music for Mary Poppins, Jungle Book, more

Maggie Smith

89, British theater and film actor with a 8-decade career
“It’s true I don’t tolerate fools, but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.”

Lloyd Arrington “Randy” Sparks

90, American singer-songwriter, founder New Christy Minstrels, Back Porch Majority

Frank Stella

87, American visual artist
“What you see is what you see.”

Roni Stoneman

85, Stoneman Family bluegrass Banjo player

Ruth “Dr. Ruth” Westheimer

96, sex therapist, radio host (Sexually Speaking), author, television host
“Anything two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom or kitchen floor is all right with me.”