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Jerrold Lewis Bock (born 23 November 1928) is an American musical theatre
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
.

in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the third largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people....
 and raised in Flushing, New York, Bock studied the piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
 as a child. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he wrote the musical Big As Life, which toured the state and enjoyed a run in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
. After graduation he spent three summers at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Poconos and wrote for early television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 revues with lyricist Larry Holofcener.






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Jerrold Lewis Bock (born 23 November 1928) is an American musical theatre
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
.

Biography

Born in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the third largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people....
 and raised in Flushing, New York, Bock studied the piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
 as a child. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he wrote the musical Big As Life, which toured the state and enjoyed a run in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
. After graduation he spent three summers at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Poconos and wrote for early television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 revues with lyricist Larry Holofcener. He made his Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 debut in 1955 when the pair contributed songs to Catch a Star. The following year the duo collaborated on the musical Mr. Wonderful
Mr. Wonderful (musical)

Mr. Wonderful is a musical theatre with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, and music and lyrics by Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener, and George David Weiss....
, designed to showcase the talents of Sammy Davis Jr., after which they worked on Ziegfeld Follies of 1956, which closed out-of-town.

Shortly after, Bock met lyricist Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit Musical theater such as Fiddler on the Roof....
, with whom he forged a successful partnership. Although their first joint venture, The Body Beautiful
The Body Beautiful

The Body Beautiful is a musical theatre with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock....
, failed to charm the critics, its score caught the attention of director George Abbott
George Abbott

George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and theatre director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and film producer whose career spanned more than seven decades....
 and producer Hal Prince
Hal Prince

Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway theatre Musical theater productions of the past half-century....
, who hired the team to compose their 1959 musical biography of former New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 Mayor LaGuardia. Fiorello!
Fiorello!

Fiorello! is a Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning musical theatre about New York City mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a reform Republican Party who took on Tammany Hall....
 went on to win them both the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than being the calendar year....
.

Bock's additional collaborations with Harnick include the full scores for Tenderloin
Tenderloin (musical)

Tenderloin is a musical theatre with a book by George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock, their follow-up to the highly successful Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello! a year earlier....
 (1960), Man in the Moon (1963), She Loves Me
She Loves Me

She Loves Me is a musical theatre and movie with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungary playwright Miklos Laszlo, following the 1940 James Stewart -Margaret Sullavan film The Shop around the Corner and the 1949 Judy Garland...
 (1963), Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical theatre with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905....
 (1964), The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree

The Apple Tree is a series of three musical Play s with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith....
 (1966), and The Rothschilds
The Rothschilds

The Rothschilds is a musical theater with a book by Sherman Yellen, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock.Based on The Rothschilds by Frederic Morton, it tells of the rise of the Rothschild family from humble beginnings in Germany, to their founding of their financial empire and growing political influence under the guid...
 (1970), three contributions to Baker Street
Baker Street (musical)

Baker Street is a musical theatre with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel.Loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is set in and around London in 1897, the year in which United Kingdom celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria ....
 (1965), and a song for the play Never Too Late
Never Too Late

"Never Too Late" is a Pop music–dance music song written and produced by United Kingdom production team Stock Aitken Waterman for Kylie Minogue's second album Enjoy Yourself ....
 (1962).

Established in 1997, the Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre is an annual US$2,000 grant presented to the composer and lyricist of a project developed in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop

The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop is a workshop in New York City for musical theatre composers, lyricists and librettists....
.

Awards and nominations

Awards
  • 1965 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist - Fiddler on the Roof
  • 1965 Tony Award for Best Musical - Fiddler on the Roof
Nominations
  • 1964 Tony Award for Best Musical - She Loves Me
  • 1967 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist - The Apple Tree
  • 1967 Tony Award for Best Musical - The Apple Tree
  • 1971 Tony Award for Best Original Score - The Rothschilds


External links


  • in the of .