Jerry Bock

Jerry Bock
Background information
Birth name	Jerrold Lewis Bock
Born	November 23, 1928(1928-11-23) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	November 3, 2010(2010-11-03) (aged 81) Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
Genres	Musical theater
Occupations	Composer, lyricist
Years active	1955–2010

Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock (November 23, 1928 – November 3, 2010) was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof with Harnick.

Biography

Born in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in Flushing, Queens, New York, Bock studied the piano as a child. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he wrote the musical Big As Life, which toured the state and enjoyed a run in Chicago. After graduation he spent three summers at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Poconos and wrote for early television revues with lyricist Larry Holofcener.

Career

He made his Broadway debut in 1955 when he and Lawrence Holofcener contributed songs to Catch a Star. The following year the duo collaborated on the musical Mr. Wonderful, designed for Sammy Davis, Jr., after which they worked on Ziegfeld Follies of 1956, which closed out-of-town.^[1]

Shortly after, Bock met lyricist Sheldon Harnick, with whom he forged a successful partnership. Although their first joint venture, The Body Beautiful, failed to charm the critics, its score caught the attention of director George Abbott and producer Hal Prince. They hired the team to compose a musical biography of former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Fiorello! (1959) went on to win them both the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Bock's additional collaborations with Harnick include Tenderloin (1960), Man in the Moon (1963), She Loves Me (1963), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), The Apple Tree (1966), and The Rothschilds (1970), as well as contributions to Never Too Late (1962), Baker Street (1965), Her First Roman (1968), and The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979). Bock wrote the music for the musical hit song "If I Were a Rich Man".

Established in 1997, the Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theater is an annual grant presented to the composer and lyricist of a project developed in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.^[2]

Bock spoke at the funeral of 98-year-old Fiddler playwright Joseph Stein just 10 days before his own death, from heart failure at the age of 81.^[3]

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical – Fiorello!
• 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – Fiorello!
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist – Fiddler on the Roof
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Musical – Fiddler on the Roof

Nominations

• 1964 Tony Award for Best Musical – She Loves Me
• 1967 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist – The Apple Tree
• 1967 Tony Award for Best Musical – The Apple Tree
• 1971 Tony Award for Best Original Score – The Rothschilds

References

1. ^ Guide to the Jerry Bock Papers, 1945-2004
2. ^ Bock listing bmifoundation.org
3. ^ "FIDDLER Composer Jerry Bock Dies at 81". broadwayworld.com. http://broadwayworld.com/article/FIDDLER_Composer_Jerry_Bock_Dies_at_81_20101103. Retrieved 3 November 2010. 

External links

• Jerry Bock at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jerry Bock at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jerry Bock at the Internet Movie Database
• Jerry Bock papers in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• PBS biography
• Songwriters Hall of Fame biography
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Jerry Bock

Persondata
Name	Bock, Jerry
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 23, 1928
Place of birth	New Haven, CT
Date of death	November 03, 2010
Place of death