Happy Birthday, Miklos Rozsa!

Born on this date in 1907, Rozsa composed outstanding concertante works
with orchestral accompaniment for violin, piano, cello, viola, violin &
cello, as well as one for orchestra.  He composed one symphony and other
orchestral works, as well as two string quartets and a small body of
chamber music.  Rozsa remains best known for about 90 film scores,
including those for Spellbound, A Double Life, and Ben-Hur, which earned
him three 'Oscar' Academy Awards.

A native of Hungary, he studied composition at the Leipzig Conservatory
(1926) and moved to Paris in 1932.  While there, he composed classical
music and gathered some acclaim, but Honegger advised him to look to the
cinema as a more stable means of income.  In 1937, by which time his
early concert and chamber works had already brought him some critical
acclaim, he began writing film scores for Sir Alexander Korda.  Three
years later, he moved with Korda's outfit, from London to Hollywood
where he began his musical collaborations with Billy Wilder, Jules
Dassin, Charles Vidor, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and others.

In 1949 Rozsa became the musical director of Metro Goldwyn Mayer
studios.  All along his career, he continued to compose symphonic and
chamber pieces.  From 1945 to 1965, he was a professor at the University
of Southern California, and continued to compose classical works.

He died on July 27, 1995.

Bert Bailey <[log in to unmask]>