Memorial Page for André Previn (née Andreas Ludwig Priwin)

André Previn (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin on 6 April 1929 in Berlin; died 28 February 2019 in Manhattan, New York) was a German-American pianist, conductor, composer and arranger. He moved with unusual assurance between Hollywood, jazz, classical music and contemporary composition, and received four Academy Awards, numerous Grammy Awards and international honors.

Berlin, emigration and Los Angeles

Previn was born in Berlin into a Jewish family. After the Nazis came to power, the family fled first to France and reached the United States in 1939. In Los Angeles, Previn grew up close to the film industry. While still a teenager he worked musically for studios, arranged, played piano and learned how precisely music can carry a scene. That early experience later became one of his great strengths.

Hollywood and jazz

In the 1940s and 1950s Previn became a sought-after musician in Hollywood. He worked for MGM, wrote arrangements, conducted studio music and composed for films. At the same time he emerged as a jazz pianist, recording with his own trios and playing with singers and musicians connected with the Great American Songbook. This double practice mattered: Previn did not think of music in fixed compartments, but as craft, language, rhythm and dramatic effect.

Four Oscars

Previn reached his greatest visibility in film with musicals and adaptations of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He won Academy Awards for Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma la Douce and My Fair Lady. These works show his ability to reorganize existing material, set orchestral colors and connect popular melodies with cinematic elegance. His Hollywood success was not only routine, but highly professional musicianship under tight production conditions.

Conductor of major orchestras

From the 1960s onward Previn shifted his public profile more strongly toward classical music. After studying with Pierre Monteux, he became principal conductor and music director of major orchestras, including the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His years in London in particular made him known to a broad television audience. He could make complex music accessible without false simplification.

Composer and boundary crosser

Previn also remained active as a composer. He wrote concertos, chamber music, orchestral works, songs and operas, including A Streetcar Named Desire after Tennessee Williams. Later works were written for performers including Kathleen Battle, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Anne-Sophie Mutter. Previn's ability to move between jazz club, film studio, concert hall and opera stage was no accident, but the expression of a musical mind that took style boundaries seriously while also making them porous.

Farewell

André Previn died in Manhattan on 28 February 2019 at the age of 89. His work remains exceptionally broad: Oscar-winning film music, jazz recordings, conducting with major orchestras, his own compositions and a rare gift for letting very different musical worlds speak to one another. He was an artist who understood versatility not as a collection of separate skills, but as a form of musical intelligence.