HOWARD KLEIN

1931 - 2021

KLEIN--Howard Kenneth, Juilliard School of Music Master of Science in piano performance (1961), The New York Times music critic (1962-67), Rockefeller Foundation Director for Arts (1967-86), New World Records Director of Artists and Repertory, consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts and similar charities, and Kriya yoga student, died on March 1, 2021 in Winchester, VA. He is survived by his sons Adam and Lawrence ("Moondi") Klein; their wives, Tami Swartz and Nancy Green Klein; and grandchildren Lauren and Connor (by Moondi and Nancy) and David Brantley (Adam's son by a previous marriage). Klein was born June 15, 1931 in Teaneck, NJ, grew up in southern Maryland, served in the USAF, and married artist Patricia Windrow in Setauket, LI: they raised their sons there and in NYC. Howard and Pat left the area in 1989 and ended up in Front Royal, VA in 1990. Patricia died in 2013. Notable musicians Howard reviewed and interviewed as a New York Times critic include Artur Rubinstein, Leonard Bernstein, Birgit Nilsson, Janet Baker, Gian Carlo Menotti, Zoltan Kodaly, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Witold Lutoslawski and Vladimir Horowitz. Programs Klein underwrote at Rockefeller linked creative artists to performance entities: playwright to theater, composer to orchestra and opera company, choreographer to dance company, painter and sculptor to museum. Grantees included composers Robert Ashley, Lee Hoiby, Billy Taylor, and Charles Wuorinen; the Museum of Holography; the American Place Theater; the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre; the African-American Institute; The Sundance Institute; the Bay Area Video Coalition; the Atlantic Center for the Arts; the Eliot Feld Ballet-Ballet Tech; the Carter Family Memorial Music Center; New World Records; American-African arts group exchange tours; The American Center for Students and Artists in Paris; a holographic arts lab at Goldsmiths' College, University of London; and Nam June Paik, the "Father of Video Art." As a pianist he performed in the Feld Ballet's "Love Song Waltzes"; in recitals with tenor Adam CJ Klein in NYC and elsewhere; with Harrisburg Opera Association; and with Bluegrass duo Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein.