John Kander

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927)<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York" (officially known as "Theme from New York, New York"). The team received numerous nominations, including eleven for Tony Awards (won four, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award for Kander), two nominations for Academy Awards, and five for Golden Globe Awards.

Early life

John Kander, the second son of Harold and Bernice (Aaron) Kander, was born on March 18, 1927, in Kansas City, Missouri.<ref>Kander, John, and Fred Ebb with Greg Lawrence. Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz. Faber and Faber, 2003, p.3</ref> He has stated that he grew up in a loving, middle-class Jewish family and maintained a lifelong close relationship with his older brother, Edward, who became a sales manager at a brokerage house in the city.<ref>Kander, Ebb and Lawrence, pp. 5-7.</ref> Kander attributes his early interest in music (starting at age four) to the family's love of singing around the piano.<ref>Kander, Ebb and Lawrence, pp. 5-6.</ref> His first composition was a Christmas carol, written during second-grade mathematics class; his teacher's encouragement led to the school choir singing it for a holiday assembly.<ref>Kander, Ebb and Lawrence, pp. 4-5.</ref> The teacher discreetly asked Kander's parents for permission to use the song, since he is Jewish. He attended his first opera performances at the age of nine, when the San Carlo Opera came to Kansas City with productions of Aida and Madama Butterfly. According to Kander, "My mother took me and we sat in the first row. There were these giants on the stage, and my feet were dangling over my seat. It was overwhelming for me, even though I could see the strings that held the beards on the Egyptian soldiers.... My interest in telling a story through music in many ways derived from early experiences like those."<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

Kander attended Westport High School before transferring to the Pembroke Country-Day School. During World War II, Kander joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps. After completing his training in California and sailing between San Francisco and Asia, Kander left the Corps on May 3, 1946.<ref name=":1"/> However, due to rule changes governing national service, Kander was forced to enlist in the Army Reserves in September of the same year, after having completed one semester at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. During the Korean War, Kander was ordered back into active duty, but he had to remain in New York City for six months of observation after a medical exam revealed scars on his lungs. He was officially discharged on July 3, 1957.<ref name=":1"/>

Kander graduated with a degree in music at Oberlin College in 1951 and went on to graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a protégé of Douglas Moore<ref>Template:NewMusicBox</ref> and studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. He earned his master's degree from Columbia University in 1953.<ref name=":0"/>

Career

Following his studies, Kander began conducting at summer theaters before serving as a rehearsal pianist<ref name=":0"/> for the musical West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins in New York. While working, Kander met the choreographer Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose dance music.Template:Citation needed After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Gypsy in 1959 and Irma la Douce in 1960.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kander's first produced musical was A Family Affair in 1962, written with James and William Goldman. The same year, Kander met Fred Ebb through their mutual publisher, Tommy Valando.<ref name=":0"/> The first song Kander and Ebb wrote together, "My Coloring Book", was made popular by a recording from Sandy Stewart. Their second song, "I Don't Care Much", was made famous by Barbra Streisand, and Kander and Ebb became a permanent team.<ref name=":0"/>

In 1965, Kander and Ebb wrote music for their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Chita Rivera (including the musicals Zorba, Chicago, The Rink, and Kiss of the Spider Woman) and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television, such as Liza with a Z.Template:Citation needed Most notably, Kander and Ebb wrote the dramatic title song that Minnelli introduced in her 1977 film, New York, New York, at the request of director Martin Scorsese and co-star Robert De Niro.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

The Broadway musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won several 2002 Academy Awards, including for best picture, film editing, costume design, art direction and sound.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his musicological and biographical study of the collaboration of Kander and Ebb, James Leve discusses the full history of Cabaret and Chicago in chapters titled "The Divinely Decadent Lives of Cabaret" and "Chicago: Broadway to Hollywood". As Leve notes, Cabaret, a musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories, was an "ideal vehicle for Kander and Ebb's brittle and self-referential brand of musical theater."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This insight also holds true for Chicago.

Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, which was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder's nephew. Kander also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder's Our Town, which took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ebb died in 2004, and Kander's first musical without Ebb in many years, The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on October 23, 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The musical, which was a series of three "mini-musicals", was directed by Walter Bobbie and starred David Hyde Pierce and Julia Murney.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kander's musical Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia.<ref name="kidvicpremiere">Template:Cite news</ref> Kid Victory premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017, in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017. Direction was by Liesl Tommy, with choreography by Christopher Windom. The cast featured Jeffry Denman and Karen Ziemba.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kander (music) and David Thompson (lyrics) wrote the dance play The Beast in the Jungle, which opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Vineyard Theatre. The play was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, and featured Tony Yazbeck and Irina Dvorovenko.<ref name="beast">Template:Cite web</ref> Kander (music) collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda (lyrics) for Miranda's Hamildrops series: "Cheering for Me Now" is an uplifting track about New York's ratification of the constitution.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

James Leve discusses Kander's prolific career and his late musical style in the essay "John Kander: the First Ninety-Two Years".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal life

In 2010, Kander married dancer and choreographer Albert Stephenson, his partner since 1977, in Toronto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kander's grand-nephew Jason Kander was formerly the Missouri Secretary of State.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Works

Lyrics by Fred Ebb unless otherwise noted

Theatre

Film

Kander and Ebb also contributed songs for the following movies:

Film scores

Television

Awards and nominations

Organizations Year Category Work Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1975 Best Original Song "How Lucky Can You Get", Funny Lady Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2002 "I Move On", Chicago Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
BAFTA Awards 2002 Best Original Music Chicago Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Golden Globe Awards 1972 Best Original Song "Mein Herr", Cabaret Template:Nom <ref name="globes">Template:Cite web</ref>
"Money, Money", Cabaret Template:Nom <ref name="globes" />
1975 Best Original Score Funny Lady Template:Nom <ref name="globes" />
Best Original Song "How Lucky Can You Get", Funny Lady Template:Nom <ref name="globes" />
1977 Best Original Song "New York, New York", New York, New York Template:Nom <ref name="globes" />
Grammy Awards 1963 Song of the Year "My Coloring Book" Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1968 Best Musical Theater Album Cabaret Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1969 The Happy Time Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1970 Zorba Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1976 Chicago Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1981 Song of the Year Theme from New York, New York Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1982 Best Musical Theater Album Woman of the Year Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1994 Kiss of the Spider Woman Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2004 Best Song Written for Visual Media "I Move On", Chicago Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Primetime Emmy Awards 1973 Outstanding Music Composition for a Special Program Liza with a Z Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics Template:Won
1986 Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or Special An Early Frost Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1993 Outstanding Music & Lyrics "Sorry I Asked", Liza Minnelli Live! From Radio City Music Hall Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Laurence Olivier Award 1998 Best Musical Chicago Template:Won
Tony Awards 1967 Composer and Lyricst Cabaret Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1968 The Happy Time Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1976 Best Original Score Chicago Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1978 The Act Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1981 Woman of the Year Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1984 The Rink Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1993 Kiss of the Spider Woman Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1997 Steel Pier Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2007 Curtains Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2011 The Scottsboro Boys Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2015 The Visit Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honorary awards

Organizations Year Award Result Template:Refh
American Theater Hall of Fame 1991 Inductee Template:Honored <ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Kennedy Center Honors 1998 Medal Template:Honored <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Signature Theater 2018 Stephen Sondheim Award Template:Honored <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Varsity Show 2021 I.A.L. Diamond Award Template:Honored <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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