Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley (born Götz Gustav Ksinski; October 28, 1922 – December 10, 2019) was a German-American composer, a pioneer of electronic music and the Moog synthesizer, a partner in the electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley, founder of the First Moog Quartet, and writer of rock-inspired compositions for Jewish religious ceremonies. Kingsley is most famous for his 1969 influential electronic instrumental composition "Popcorn".

Kingsley conducted and arranged many Broadway musicals, and he composed for film, television shows and commercials. His compositions were eclectic and vary between avant-garde and pop styles. Kingsley also composed classical chamber works, and his opera ''Raoul'' was premiered in Bremen, Germany in 2008. His work was recognized with a Tony Award nomination for Best Conductor and Musical Director, two Clio Awards for his work in advertising music, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bob Moog Foundation. Kingsley died on December 10, 2019, at the age of 97 in Manhattan, New York.

Biography

Early life

Kingsley was born Götz Gustav Ksinski in 1922 in Bochum, Weimar Republic, the son of Marie Christina, a homemaker, and Max Ksinski, a carpet dealer and pianist. His father was born Jewish and his mother, originally Catholic, converted to Judaism. He grew up in Berlin where his parents ran a large carpet shop. They had originally met in Essen, when his father, returning from Berlin on a business trip, had dropped in to a wine bar managed by two sisters, one of whom soon became Kingsley's mother. The elder Ksinski had spent the evening playing the piano in the bar, after which romance quickly blossomed.

As his father was Jewish, he fled from Nazi Germany in 1938 a few days before Kristallnacht and joined kibbutz Ein Harod, Mandatory Palestine where the 15-year-old, self-taught musician began his career in music. His parents stayed behind at that time. At the kibbutz he taught himself to play the piano. He joined the Hagana Jewish Settlement Police ( Notrim) and also played jazz in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He studied at the Jerusalem conservatory of music. His parents and brother had escaped to Cuba, from where, eventually, they succeeded in obtaining visas for the United States, where Kingsley met up with them eight years later. After World War II, Kingsley emigrated to America where he became a pit conductor for Broadway musical shows. In 1946 after graduating from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, he adopted the pseudonym “''Gershon”'' in tribute to the son of Moses.

Musical career

In 1964, Kingsley worked as an arranger at Vanguard Records, and in 1965, after ceasing to be a colleague of the avant-garde composer John Cage he met and formed a duet known as Perrey and Kingsley with the French musician Jean-Jacques Perrey

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