Ravinia 2024 Issue 3

before he was old enough to attend high school, he was named first flutist in the Pennsylvania All-State High School Band. Piano lessons be- gan at the same time. By his mid-teens, Mancini had developed a passionate interest in arranging. He spent many hours meticulously transcribing record- ings made by the Artie Shaw Band, played on his variable-speed phonograph. However, it be- came apparent to Quinto Mancini that Henry would benefit from a more systematic course of study. Max Adkins, the conductor of the pit band at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, was a respected musician and arranger. Quinto asked him to supervise Henry’s training, declaring: “He listens to the radio all the time. He’s always writing notes on paper. He needs someone to teach him.” The subsequent association with Adkins proved invaluable. Once when the Benny Goodman Band played the Stanley The- atre, Adkins introduced Mancini to the clari- net-playing bandleader. Goodman convinced Henry to come to New York and try his hand at arranging. Although his first efforts were fail- ures, Mancini remained in New York to further his studies at Juilliard. Mancini’s enrollment at Juilliard was suspended following his conscription into the United States Army Air Corps. While in the service, Mancini met Glenn Miller, who assigned him to one of the Air Force Bands. After the disappearance of Glenn Miller’s plane over the English Channel, Tex Beneke was chosen to lead the Air Force Band. Mancini’s affiliation with Beneke contin- ued after the war, when he joined the Tex Beneke Orchestra as pianist and arranger. The orchestra traveled throughout the US, appearing with fea- tured singers and vocal ensembles. One singing group was the Mello-Larks, whose only female singer was the young Ginny O’Connor. Henry and Ginny married in Hollywood, CA, on Sep- tember 13, 1947. The Mancinis had three chil- dren, a son Chris and twin daughters Monica and Felice. Remaining in California, Mancini continued his private studies with Ernst Krenek, Mario Castel- nuovo-Tedesco, and Alfred Sendry. Arranging The Mancini Family (c.1988) assignments, mostly for radio shows, began to trickle in slowly but steadily. Mancini published his first song, “The Soft-Shoe Boogie,” in 1950. He joined the music department at Universal Pictures two years later and received his s first assignment: music for a single scene in an Ab- bott and Costello picture, Lost in Alaska . By the time he left Universal in 1958, he had contribut- ed to more than 100 pictures, including The Glenn Miller Story and The Benny Goodman Sto- ry . He also achieved considerable acclaim for his soundtrack for the television series Peter Gunn , which won two Grammys that same year. After leaving Universal, Mancini continued to write for the motion pictures. Many of these later films were collaborations with director Blake Edwards. Mancini merged jazz, pop, and orchestral idioms in his innovative, elegant, col- orful, and often dramatic style that has graced such films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s , Days of Wine and Roses , Hatari! , Charade , The Pink Panther series, The Great Race , Darling Lili , Sunflower , The Great Waldo Pepper , Sometimes a Great No- tion , Silver Streak , 10 , Victor/Victoria , The Man Who Loved Women , The Glass Menagerie , That’s Life , and Welcome Home . He continued to ex- pand his career with orchestral performances as a guest pianist and conductor. Mancini wrote an autobiography, with Gene Lees, entitled Did They Mention the Music? Henry Mancini died at his Los Angeles home on June 14, 1944, following a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer, but the acclaim and honor accorded his life and music did not end. Before the October 24, 1995, preview of the Victor/ Victoria production on Broadway—Mancini was working on the musical theater adaptation at the time of his death—the American So- ciety of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) announced the establishment of the ASCAP/Henry Mancini Award, given annually “to an individual who has made an outstanding Henry Mancini with director Blake Edwards and actor Craig Stevens ( Peter Gunn ) on set contribution to film music.” The late Jack Elliott, a film and television composer and music direc- tor for the Grammy Awards for 31 years, estab- lished the Henry Mancini Institute in 1997 as a summer music academy in Los Angeles. The institute closed in 2006 but later reopened at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where it currently thrives as a program for aspir- ing professional musicians. –Program notes © 1991 Todd E. Sullivan; updated 2017 and 2024 Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria Original soundtrack recording, The Pink Panther Original soundtrack recording, Breakfast at Tiffany’s RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 22 – AUGUST 4, 2024 80