- Dec 5 Reiner Bredemeyer, German composer, dies at 66
- Dec 6 Claire Polin (Schaff), American contemporary classical, composer flautist, and musicologist, dies at 69
- Dec 9 Benny Lee, Scottish singer and actor (Are You Being Served), dies at 79
- Dec 10 Darren Robinson [Human Beatbox], American rapper and actor (Fat Boys-Jail House Rock), dies of a heart attack at 28
- Dec 11 Arthur Mullard, English actor, comedian and singer (Romany Jones), dies at 82
- Dec 11 John Heawood, Canadian actor, singer and choreographer (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), dies at 75
- Dec 11 Robert Shelton [Shapiro], American born music and film critic, dies at 69
- Dec 12 Mary Bruce, American tap dance teacher, dies at 95
- Dec 13 Nancy LaMott, American singer, dies of cancer at 43
- Dec 15 Jim [James Geoffrey Cutcliffe] Hepburn, English tap-dancer and socialist, dies at 88
- Dec 15 Johnny Lytle, American jazz drummer and vibraphonist, known as "Fast Hands", dies of kidney failure at 63
- Dec 16 Nina Verchinina, Russian-Brazilian ballet dancer and choreographer, dies at 85 [1]
- Dec 18 Brian Brockless, English organist and composer, dies at 69
- Dec 20 Adone Zecchi, Italian composer and conductor (Corale Euridice; Orchestra Bolognese de Camera), dies at 91
- Dec 25 Marijan Lipovsek, Slovenian pianist, composer, and teacher, dies at 85
- Dec 25 Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-American pianist, conductor, musicologist (Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns; Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians), and composer, dies at 101
- Dec 27 Shura Cherkassky, American classical pianist, dies at 86
- Dec 28 Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis [Charles Thompson], American blues musician (Cold Hands), dies of a heart attack at 70
- Dec 29 Schlomo Joffe, Polish-Israeli folk and classical musician and composer, dies at 86
- Dec 30 Aleksi Machavariani, Soviet Georgian conductor, and composer (Den moei Rodini (Day of My Motherland); Five Monologues), dies at 82
- Dec 30 Clarence Satchell, American funk saxophonist (Ohio Players - "Fire";"Love Rollercoaster"), dies of a brain aneurysm at 55
- Dec 30 Ralph Flanagan, American orchestra leader (Let's Dance), dies at 76
- Dec 31 Eduardo Hernández Moncada, Mexican composer and pianist, dies at 96
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