Lehman Engel

He was the composer and conductor of the music for the famed 1954 television production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson.

In the preceding years, he also conducted the Hallmark Hall of Fame's productions of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1956), Twelfth Night (1957), and The Tempest (1960)[2] and the Broadway musicals Shangri-La (1956) and Li'l Abner (1956).

Lehman Engel worked as musical director for the St. Louis Municipal Opera for several years before moving to New York to conduct on Broadway.

It was the longest Porgy and Bess album made at the time (129 minutes) and would remain so for many years until it was superseded in the 1970s by two complete recordings of the opera, both of which won Grammys.

The recordings featured Robert Merrill as Billy Bigelow, Patrice Munsel as Julie Jordan, and Florence Henderson as Carrie.

In 1956, he conducted a studio recording of Show Boat with Robert Merrill singing the roles of both Ravenal and the black stevedore Joe, Ms. Munsel as Magnolia, and Risë Stevens as Julie La Verne.

He also mentored Maury Yeston, who succeeded him in teaching the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, Alan Menken, Stephen Flaherty, Andrew MacBean, Joseph Byrd, and Edward Kleban.