Hugo Winterhalter

Hugo Winterhalter
Music: East side of the 1600 block of Vine Street
Arranger | Conductor
Born Aug. 15, 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, PA
Died Sept. 17, 1973 of cancer in Greenwich, CT

Hugo Winterhalter was among the first to arrange and conduct performances for long-playing records.

Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. In high school, he played saxophone for the orchestra and sang in the choir. He studied violin and reed instruments at the New England Conservatory of Music.

After graduating, he taught school for several years before starting a professional career during the mid-1930s, serving as a sideman and arranger for Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Raymond Scott, Claude Thornhill and others.

During the late 1940s, he was musical director at Columbia Records, where he worked with Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Doris Day and Buddy Clark.

In 1950, he moved to RCA Victor where he stayed until 1963 as musical director. He won several music awards, including a Grammy in 1957 for the best performance by an orchestra.

— Associated Press in the Los Angeles Times Sept. 18, 1973

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