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Born Jacob Schwatzdorf in New York City. Composer, conductor, pianist and arranger who gave his first piano concerto at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at age 12. He conducted the New York Opera Comique, the Federal Grand Opera Project and the Federal Gilbert and Sullivan Project, the St. Louis Municipal Opera, and the Delaware Philharmonic. He directed the music for the Broadway productions of Oklahoma!; Annie Get Your Gun; Inside U.S.A.; Miss Liberty; Call Me Madam; Wish You Were Here; New Faces of 1956; Happy Hunting; Oh Captain; Redhead; Mr. President; and The Girl Who Came to Supper. He conducted the orchestra for three major productions of Oklahoma! -- the original 1943 Broadway stage version, the 1955 film version, and the 1979 Broadway revival. Each of these three versions featured orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett (slightly revised and expanded for large orchestra in the film). The 1979 Broadway revival cast album, which used the original 1943 orchestrations, is perhaps the only instance in Broadway history in which a show's original conductor re-recorded his interpretation of the score in hi-fi stereo thirty-six years after his original recording.
Blackton was music director for MGM's THE MERRY WIDOW (1952). He also composed music to supplement Frank Loesser's score for the 1955 film GUYS AND DOLLS.
2 nominations |
Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Scoring of a Musical Picture)