Hershy Kay

Kay, Hershy (1919–81), orchestrator and composer. Although better known as a composer of light concert pieces and of the music for such modern ballets as Stars and Stripes, the Philadelphia native was also an important orchestrator of Broadway musicals. He was a classmate of Leonard Bernstein at the Curtis Institute of Music, and his first major Broadway assignment was Bernstein's On the Town (1944). Kay's notably breezy arrangements were later heard in such shows as The Golden Apple (1954), Candide (1956), Milk and Honey (1961), A Chorus Line (1975), On the Twentieth Century (1977), and Evita (1980).

Kay, Hershy (b Philadelphia, 17 Nov. 1919, d Danbury, Conn., 2 Dec. 1981). US composer. He wrote and arranged the music for several ballets including Balanchine's Western Symphony (1954), Who Cares? (orchestration of Gershwin, 1970), and Union Jack (1976), also Robbins's The Concert (arr. of Chopin, 1956).