Deaths
- January 2 – Dick Powell, actor and singer, 58 (lymphoma)
- January 24 – Otto Harbach, lyricist, 89
- January 30 – Francis Poulenc, French composer, 64
- February 19 – Benny Moré, Cuban singer, 43 (cirrhosis of the liver)
- February 20 – Ferenc Fricsay, conductor, 48 (cancer)
- March 5 – Patsy Cline, American country/pop singer, 30 (plane crash)
- March 17 – Lizzie Miles, singer, 67
- March 28 – Alec Templeton, Welsh composer, 52
- March 30 – Aleksandr Gauk, Russian conductor and composer, 69
- March 31 – Harry Akst, US composer and pianist, 68
- April 9
- Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist, 71
- Benno Moiseiwitsch, Jewish-Ukrainian pianist, 73
- April 12 – Herbie Nichols, jazz musician, 44 (leukemia)
- May 6 – Ted Weems, US bandleader, 61
- May 10 – Irving Aaronson, bandleader and composer, 68
- May 24 – Elmore James, American blues guitarist, 45 (heart attack)
- June 24 - Sybil Evers, mezzo-soprano and actress, 59
- August 15 – John Powell, pianist, composer and ethnomusicologist, 80
- August 23 – Glenn Gray, American saxophonist and conductor, 63
- September 3 – Frico Kafenda, Slovak composer, 79
- September 12 – Modest Altschuler, cellist, conductor and composer, 90
- September 25 – Alexander Sakharoff, Russian dancer and choreographer, 77
- October 11 – Édith Piaf, French singing superstar, 47 (liver cancer)
- October 25 – Roger Désormière, French conductor, 65
- November 1 – Elsa Maxwell, songwriter, "the hostess with the mostest", 80
- November 15 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor, 74
- November 19 – Carmen Amaya, flamenco dancer and singer, 50
- November 26 – Amelita Galli-Curci, operatic soprano, 81
- November 29 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban composer, pianist and bandleader, 68
- December 5 – Karl Amadeus Hartmann, composer, 58 (stomach cancer)
- December 14 – Dinah Washington, singer, 39
- December 28 – Paul Hindemith, composer, 68
- date unknown – Naftule Brandwein, clarinettist
Read more about this topic: 1963 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“On almost the incendiary eve
Of deaths and entrances ...”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)