Broadway Music Director and Conductor Elliot Lawrence Dies at 96

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that composer, conductor, and music director Elliot Lawrence has died at 96.

To Broadway fans, Lawrence is known for musical directing the Broadway production of Bye, Bye Birdie, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Conductor and Musical Director in 1953. He later won the Tony Award in that category for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Other Broadway shows he music directed included GoldenBoy, Here's Love, The Apple Tree, Golden Rainbow, La Strada, Sugar, and Georgy.

Lawrence also served as the music director of the Tony Awards, music directing every show from its first 1967 television broadcast until 2013. He is the recipient of ten Emmy Awards.

Elliot Lawrence was born Elliot Lawrence Broza and took the name Elliot Lawrence when he became the music director of WCAU's house band in 1945. From 1946 to 1954 the Elliot Lawrence Orchestra toured the U.S., and recorded albums for Decca, Columbia, RCA, and Fantasy. Lawrence's recording of his and Gerry Mulligan's composition "Elevation" was named "one of the top 50 jazz recordings of the 20th Century" by the Smithsonian Institution

In 1953 Elliot went to the Soviet Union with The Ed Sullivan Show as part of the first American band to broadcast from the Soviet Union. His film career includes composing and conducting the score for the Oscar-winning film Network and the opening sequence of The French Connection.

He conducted television specials for Placido Domingo, Anita Baker, Ann Margret, Anne Bancroft, Joel Grey, Patti LaBelle, Burt Bacharach, and Dionne Warwick.

From 1978 to 2002 he executive produced all the music for the advertising agency N.W. Ayer, including the Army's iconic "Be All You Can Be" jingle and AT&T's "Reach Out and Touch Someone." At one point in the 80's he was producing all the music for the daytime dramas Search for Tomorrow, The Edge of Night, As the World Turns and The Guiding Light.