- published: 31 Oct 2011
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John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is the American composer of a number of musicals as part of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. He wrote the music for the stage musical Cabaret, for which he won the Tony Award as Composer and Lyricist. He and Ebb received the Kennedy Center Honors award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998.
Kander was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended the Pembroke Country-Day School and Oberlin College before earning a master's degree at Columbia University where he was a protégé of Douglas Moore and studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. His studies were interrupted at Oberlin when he served in the Cadet corps of the United States Merchant Marines.
Kander began his Broadway career as substitute rehearsal pianist for West Side Story. The stage manager for West Side Story then asked Kander to play the auditions for her next show, Gypsy. During the auditions, Kander met the choreographer, Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose the dance music for the show in 1959. After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Irma la Douce in 1960.
Sasha (sung):
The man is dead
The man is dead
This is no joke
The man did croak
And now he’s dead
He’s breathed his last
He’s in the past
He’s lost his lease
So rest in peace