These we have lost in 2021

You can find a comprehensive catalogue of musical mortality by clicking the RIP button at the top right-hand corner of this page. Below, we list fifty of the saddest losses.

1 Composer Stephen Sondheim

2 Conductor Bernard Haitink

3 Soprano Edita Gruberova

4 Pianist Nelson Freire

5 Impresario Christopher Hunt

6 Sopran Aga Mikolaj

7 Pianist Max Olding

8 Administrator Chrissy Sharp

9 Soprano Joan Carlyle

10 Composer Udo Zimmerman

11 Chorister Emma Kerr

12 Concertmaster Carl Pini

13 Composer Alvin Lucier

14 Composer Luis de Pablo

15 Orchestra manager John Boyden

16 Met concertmaster Raymond Gniewek

17 Composer Carlisle Floyd

18 Soprano Karan Armstrong

19 Carnegie Hall greeter Debby King

20 Conductor Andras Ligeti

21 Violist Ron Ephrat

22 Wagnerian Norman Bailey

23 Opera translator Amanda Holden

24 Composer Mikis Theodorakis

25 Violinist Igor Oistrakh

26 Beatles harpist Sheila Bromberg

27 Composer Siegfried Matthus

28 Singer Don Everley

29 Conductor Michael Morgan

30 Record boss Walter Yetnikoff

31 Opera director Graham Vick

32 Writer Joyce Kennedy

33 Composer Louis Andriessen

34 Composer Frederic Rzewski

35 Tafelmusik founder Jeanne Lamon

36 Composer Cristóbal Halffter

37 Songwriter Franco Battiato

38 Curtis dean Robert Fitzpatrick

39 Lieder teacher Carolyn Hague

40 Critic Martin Bookspan

41-2 Composer Anthony Payne and his wife Jane Manning

43 Conductor Kazimierz Kord

44 Mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig

45 Balladeer Milva

46 Choreographer Liam Scarlett

47 Luthier Philippe Dupuy

48 Conductor James Levine

49 La Scala concertmaster Elena Taskova

50 Violinist Corinne Chapelle

So many… and some so painfully young. Victims of Covid, depression, cancer, injustice, accidents and other causes.