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| Richard Hayman | |
|---|---|
| Name | Richard Hayman |
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth date | May 27, 1920 |
| Birth place | St. Albans, West Virginia |
| Death date | February 5, 2014 |
| Death place | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Instrument | harmonica, piano |
| Occupation | Arranger, conductor, composer, musician |
| Years active | 1936–2014 |
| Associated acts | Boston Pops Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic-Symphony of New York |
Richard Hayman was an American arranger, conductor, and harmonica soloist noted for his long association with the Boston Pops Orchestra and for popular orchestral arrangements that bridged classical, popular, and film repertoires. Over a career spanning more than six decades he worked with leading ensembles, film studios, Broadway productions, and record labels, shaping mid-20th-century orchestral popular music and light classical programming. Hayman combined virtuosity on the chromatic harmonica with a prolific output of arrangements and recordings that reached broad radio, television, and concert audiences.
Hayman was born in St. Albans, West Virginia and raised during the interwar era in a milieu influenced by Tin Pan Alley and Big Band popular culture. He studied music in his youth, focusing on piano and harmonica, and absorbed repertoire ranging from ragtime to symphony orchestra literature. Early mentorship and local performance led him to engagements with touring bands and regional orchestras, which brought him into contact with figures associated with radio broadcasting and the recording industry in the 1930s and 1940s.
Hayman served as assistant conductor and later as principal guest conductor with the Boston Pops Orchestra under leaders such as Arthur Fiedler and John Williams. His tenure with the Pops extended through multiple decades, during which he led concerts at Symphony Hall (Boston) and appeared on national broadcasts on NBC and CBS. Before Boston, Hayman held positions with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and he worked in New York with the Philharmonic-Symphony of New York (later the New York Philharmonic). He also guest-conducted ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As an arranger, Hayman produced popular orchestrations for soloists, vocalists, and instrumental ensembles, crafting charts for artists associated with Capitol Records, RCA Victor, and Columbia Records. He arranged for singers and entertainers including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Barbra Streisand, and Tony Bennett. His arrangements often featured lush string writing, jaunty wind soli, and harmonica solos; repertoire he arranged included selections from George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Leonard Bernstein. Hayman also composed original light orchestral pieces and short salon works that entered broadcast and concert programming alongside film scores by composers such as Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, and Elmer Bernstein.
Hayman made numerous recordings as conductor and soloist for labels including RCA Victor, Columbia Records, Mercury Records, Decca Records, and Boston Pops Records. Notable releases included popular orchestral albums of holiday music, standards, and instrumental showcases that featured his harmonica playing; such albums were marketed for the consumer LP era and later for compact disc reissues. His discography encompassed collaborations with orchestras and studio pick-up groups, holiday staples comparable to recordings by the Boston Pops Orchestra and seasonal projects associated with artists like Perry Como and Andy Williams.
Hayman contributed arrangements and orchestrations for Hollywood studios and television variety programs, working in the milieu of Hollywood Golden Age film music and mid-century network television. He provided scoring assistance, arrangement services, and on-camera musical direction for variety shows featuring performers from The Ed Sullivan Show circuit and daytime programming on NBC. On Broadway and in off-Broadway productions he supplied orchestrations and conducting services for musical revivals and new works, collaborating in theatrical circles connected to productions associated with figures such as Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and producers linked to Theatre District projects.
During his career Hayman received honors from civic and musical organizations recognizing his contributions to popular orchestral music and broadcasting. He was lauded by symphony societies and pops organizations for his programming and for expanding audiences for orchestral music, and his recordings received commercial success and airplay on radio stations specializing in light classical and popular standards. Institutions such as municipal arts councils and performing-arts centers acknowledged his role in American musical life alongside contemporaries like Arthur Fiedler, Andre Kostelanetz, and Mantovani.
Hayman lived much of his later life in the Boston area and remained active into advanced age, maintaining ties with orchestras, record labels, and broadcasting organizations. He is remembered for popularizing the harmonica as a concert instrument and for arrangements that served as repertory bridges between classical music and mid-century popular song. His manuscripts and recorded legacy endure in archives, radio libraries, and reissue programs, influencing conductors, arrangers, and studio musicians in orchestral pops programming and commercial recording practice. Hayman’s career is cited in histories of American popular orchestras and retrospectives of 20th-century arranging, alongside documentation of the rise of orchestral pops in American cultural institutions.
Category:American conductors (music) Category:American arrangers Category:1920 births Category:2014 deaths