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Irwin Kostal | |
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| Born | (1911-10-01)October 1, 1911 |
| Died | November 23, 1994(1994-11-23) (aged 83) Studio City,California, U.S. |
| Genres | Musical film,musical theatre, animation |
| Occupation(s) | Songwriter,screenwriter,publisher |
| Years active | 1950s–1994 |
Irwin Kostal (October 1, 1911 – November 23, 1994) was an Americanmusical arranger offilms and anorchestrator ofBroadwaymusicals.
Born inChicago,Illinois, Kostal attendedHarrison Technical High School,[1] but opted not to attend college, instead teaching himself musical arranging by studying thesymphonic scores available at his locallibrary. His first professional job was as a staff arranger forDesign for Listening, anNBCradio show based in his hometown. Irwin was one of four children born to James and Emma Kostal in a Czech enclave of Chicago.[2] His siblings James, Jerome and Violet all remained in the Chicago area.[3]
After moving toNew York City, Kostal was hired forSid Caesar's popularvariety seriesYour Show of Shows, and followed this with a stint atThe Garry Moore Show.
In the late 1950's he arranged and conducted two of Julie Andrews early solo albums on RCA records, "The Lass with the Delicate Air" and "Julie Andrews Sings".
In the latter part of the decade he began working on Broadway, orchestrating forShinbone Alley,The Music Man,Fiorello!, andWest Side Story. His work on the latter resulted in his being hired to score the1961 screen adaptation withSaul Chaplin,Johnny Green, andSid Ramin. The quartet won both an Oscar and aGrammy Award for their contributions. Kostal later went on to collaborate with Saul Chaplin for the 1965 film adaptation of theRodgers & HammersteinmusicalThe Sound of Music and won an Oscar for Best Music Scoring.
He also conducted the orchestra for several of theFirestone Christmas Albums.
For the remainder of his life, Kostal divided his time primarily between stage and screen, with an occasional detour into television to work with such people asCarol Burnett,Lucille Ball, andLeonard Bernstein. He supervised five of theSherman Brothers musical film scores (one of them beingMary Poppins) at four different movie studios between 1964 and 1978. In1982, he conducted the digital re-recording of the music toWalt Disney's1940animated featureFantasia.
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Kostal died of aheart attack inStudio City, California. At the time of his death he was a widower (his wife Sylvia had died the year before), and president of theAmerican Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. In 2004 he was named aDisney Legend in recognition of his contributions to films released by the studio.
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