Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning conductor Morton Gould, who also wrote music for theatre in the 1940s and '50s, died Feb. 21 in Florida. He was 82.
Gould is known for blurring the lines between classical, jazz and pop music during those years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1995 for "Stringmusic."
Other well-known compositions include "Ghost Waltzes," "Fall River Legend," "I'm Old Fashioned" and "Clarinade," the last three of which were choreographed as ballets by the likes of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Gould met Robbins in 1945 when they worked together on the "Interplay" ballet in Billy Rose's Concert Varieties revue (36 performances).
That show led to their collaboration later that year on the full-length musical Billion Dollar Baby, which had book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, was directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. It ran 219 performances. The "Charleston" number from that show was one of the highlights of Jerome Robbins' Broadway, which won a Tony as Best Musical of 1988. Gould's other Broadway musical, Arms and the Girl in 1950, starred Nanette Fabray and Pearl Bailey, but lasted only 134 performances.