Musicians Who Died in 1953

Hank Williams (1923-1953)

Jan 1 American country singer-songwriter ("Cold Cold Heart"; "Hey, Good Lookin'"; "Your Cheatin' Heart"), dies of an alcohol and painkiller fueled heart attack at 29

Jan 1 Ludomir Różycki, Polish composer and conductor (Eros i Psyche; Pan Twardowski), dies at 69
Jan 8 Heinrich Kaspar Schmid, German composer, dies at 78
Jan 10 Theo Mackeben, German pianist/composer (Golden Cage), dies at 56
Jan 12 Simeon Roncal, Bolivian composer, dies at 82
Jan 15 Patrick Vretblad, Swedish composer, dies at 76
Feb 2 Gustav Strube, German-American composer and conductor (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), dies at 85
Feb 25 Jesus Garcia Leoz, Spanish orchestral and film composer (The Sun Comes Out Every Day), dies at 49
Feb 26 Elisabeth Kuyper, Dutch pianist, conductor, composer, educator, and women's rights activist dies at 75

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Mar 5 Russian composer (Peter and the Wolf; Alexander Nevsky), dies at 61

Mar 17 Conrado del Campo y Zabaleta, Spanish composer and violinist, dies at 73
Mar 27 Narciso Garay, Panamanian composer, dies at 76
Mar 29 Arthur Fields [Abraham Finkelstein], American singer-songwriter (Aba Daba Honeymoon), dies in a fire at his nursing home residence at 68 [1]
Mar 30 Roderich Mojsisovics-Mojsvar, Austrian composer, dies at 75
May 4 T. Tertius Noble, English composer, dies at 85

Django Reinhardt (1910-1953)

May 16 Belgium born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer considered the most significant European jazz musician, dies at 43

May 17 Eric De Lamarter, American organist, composer and conductor (Chicago Symphony), dies at 73
May 22 Vaclav Klicka, Czech composer, dies at 70
May 26 Albert Spalding, American violinist and composer, dies at 64
May 30 Dooley Wilson [Arthur Wilson], American musician and actor (Beulah, Casablanca), dies of natural causes at 67

Florence Price (1888-1953)

Jun 3 American composer (Wanamaker Prize 1932) and 1st African-American woman to have a composition played by a major orchestra, dies at 66

Jun 10 Grzegorz Fitelberg, Polish composer, dies at 73
Jun 17 Walter Niemann, German composer, dies at 76
Jun 29 Jules van Nuffel, Belgian composer, priest, and musicologist (Nova Organi Harmonia), dies at 70
Jun 30 Göte Carlid, Swedish composer (Eine kleine Teemusik), dies at 32
Jul 10 Sidney Homer, American composer, dies at 88
Jul 12 Joseph Jongen, Belgian organist and composer (Symphonie concertante, Op. 81), dies at 79 [1]
Jul 17 Bernhard van den Sigtenhorst Meyer, Dutch composer, dies at 65
Aug 2 Betty Jack Davis, American country singer (with Skeeter Davis in The Davis Sisters), killed in car crash at 21
Aug 13 Dmitri Arakishvili, Soviet and Georgian composer, dies at 80
Aug 27 Nicolai Berezowsky, Russian-American composer, dies at 53
Aug 28 Nikolai Golovanov, Russian conductor and composer (Bolshoi Opera), dies at 61
Aug 30 Dimitar Nenov, Bulgarian composer, pianist and architect, dies at 51
Sep 15 Jacques Thibaud, French violinist, dies at 72
Sep 17 Henry Holden Huss, American composer, dies at 91
Sep 21 Roger Quilter, British composer, dies at 75
Oct 3 Arnold Bax, British composer known for his orchestral music (Tintagel), and memoirist (Farewell My Youth), dies of heart failure at 69
Oct 8 Kathleen Ferrier, English contralto singer (Orfeo Ed Evridice), dies of cancer at 41
Oct 18 Federico Gerdes, composer, dies at 80
Oct 24 Ernest Irving, English composer, dies at 74
Oct 27 Zdzislaw Jachimecki, Polish composer and music historian, dies at 71
Oct 29 William Kapell, American concert pianist and recording artist, dies in a plane crash at 31
Oct 30 Emmerich Kálmán, Hungarian composer of operettas, dies at 71
Nov 4 Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, American pianist and philanthropist, dies at 89
Nov 6 John Parsons Beach, American composer, dies at 76
Nov 16 Sol Hoʻopiʻi [Kaʻaiʻai], Native Hawaiian acoustic and electric lap steel guitar virtuoso, dies of diabetes related kidney failure at 50
Nov 18 Ruth Crawford Seeger, American modernist classical and folk music composer (String Quartet, 1931; Rissolty, Rossolty), dies at 52
Nov 21 Larry Shields, American jazz clarinetist (Original Dixieland Jazz Band), dies at 60
Nov 24 George Alexander Russell, American organist, composer and the first Frick Professor of Music for Princeton University, dies at 73
Dec 4 Daniel Gregory Mason, American composer (Chanticker), dies at 80
Dec 5 Jorge Negrete [Moreno], Mexican singer and actor (The Rebel, La madrina del diablo), dies of hepatitis at 42
Dec 11 Albert Coates, English conductor and composer (Eagle; Pickwick), dies at 78
Dec 15 Kishio Hirao, Japanese composer, dies at 46
Dec 27 Julian Tuwim, Polish poet and lyricist, dies at 59