John Kander

Biography

John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York" (officially known as "Theme from New York, New York"). The team received numerous nominations, including eleven for Tony Awards (won four, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award for Kander), two nominations for Academy Awards, and five for Golden Globe Awards.

Early life

John Kander, the second son of Harold and Bernice (Aaron) Kander, was born on March 18, 1927, in Kansas City, Missouri. He has stated that he grew up in a loving, middle-class Jewish family and maintained a lifelong close relationship with his older brother, Edward, who became a sales manager at a brokerage house in the city. Kander attributes his early interest in music (starting at age four) to the family's love of singing around the piano. His first composition was a Christmas carol, written during second-grade mathematics class; his teacher's encouragement led to the school choir singing it for a holiday assembly. The teacher discreetly asked Kander's parents for permission to use the song, since he is Jewish. He attended his first opera performances at the age of nine, when the San Carlo Opera came to Kansas City with productions of Aida and Madama Butterfly. According to Kander, "My mother took me and we sat in the first row. There were these giants on the stage, and my feet were dangling over my seat. It was overwhelming for me, even though I could see the strings that held the beards on the Egyptian soldiers.... My interest in telling a story through music in many ways derived from early experiences like those."
Kander attended Westport High School before transferring to the Pembroke Country-Day School. During World War II, Kander joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps. After completing his training in California and sailing between San Francisco and Asia, Kander left the Corps on May 3, 1946. However, due to rule changes governing national service, Kander was forced to enlist in the Army Reserves in September of the same year, after having completed one semester at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. During the Korean War, Kander was ordered back into active duty, but he had to remain in New York City for six months of observation after a medical exam revealed scars on his lungs. He was officially discharged on July 3, 1957.
Kander graduated with a degree in music at Oberlin College in 1951 and went on to graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a protégé of Douglas Moore and studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. He earned his master's degree from Columbia University in 1953.

Career

Following his studies, Kander began conducting at summer theaters before serving as a rehearsal pianist for the musical West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins in New York. While working, Kander met the choreographer Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose dance music. After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Gypsy in 1959 and Irma la Douce in 1960.
Kander's first produced musical was A Family Affair in 1962, written with James and William Goldman. The same year, Kander met Fred Ebb through their mutual publisher, Tommy Valando. The first song Kander and Ebb wrote together, "My Coloring Book", was made popular by a recording from Sandy Stewart. Their second song, "I Don't Care Much", was made famous by Barbra Streisand, and Kander and Ebb became a permanent team.
In 1965, Kander and Ebb wrote music for their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut.
Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera (including the musicals Zorba, Chicago, The Rink, and Kiss of the Spider Woman) and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television, such as Liza with a Z. Most notably, Kander and Ebb wrote the dramatic title song that Minnelli introduced in her 1977 film, New York, New York, at the request of director Martin Scorsese and co-star Robert De Niro.
The Broadway musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won several 2002 Academy Awards, including for best picture, film editing, costume design, art direction and sound. In his musicological and biographical study of the collaboration of Kander and Ebb, James Leve discusses the full history of Cabaret and Chicago in chapters titled "The Divinely Decadent Lives of Cabaret" and "Chicago: Broadway to Hollywood". As Leve notes, Cabaret, a musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories, was an "ideal vehicle for Kander and Ebb's brittle and self-referential brand of musical theater." This insight also holds true for Chicago.
Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, which was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder's nephew. Kander also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder's Our Town, which took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew.
Ebb died in 2004, and Kander's first musical without Ebb in many years, The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on October 23, 2013. The musical, which was a series of three "mini-musicals", was directed by Walter Bobbie and starred David Hyde Pierce and Julia Murney.
Kander's musical Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. Kid Victory premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017, in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017. Direction was by Liesl Tommy, with choreography by Christopher Windom. The cast featured Jeffry Denman and Karen Ziemba.
Kander (music) and David Thompson (lyrics) wrote the dance play The Beast in the Jungle, which opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Vineyard Theatre. The play was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, and featured Tony Yazbeck and Irina Dvorovenko. Kander (music) collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda (lyrics) for Miranda's Hamildrops series: "Cheering for Me Now" is an uplifting track about New York's ratification of the constitution.
James Leve discusses Kander's prolific career and his late musical style in the essay "John Kander: the First Ninety-Two Years".

Personal life

In 2010, Kander married dancer and choreographer Albert Stephenson, his partner since 1977, in Toronto. Kander's grand-nephew Jason Kander was formerly the Missouri Secretary of State.

Theatre

A Family Affair (1962) – lyrics by William Goldman
Flora the Red Menace (1965)
Cabaret (1966)
Go Fly a Kite (1966) – music and lyrics also by Walter Marks
The Happy Time (1967)
Zorba (1968)
70, Girls, 70 (1971)
Chicago (1975)
The Act (1977)
Woman of the Year (1981)
The Rink (1984)
Diamonds (1984) – two songs: "Winter In New York" and "Diamonds Are Forever"
And The World Goes 'Round (1991)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992)
Steel Pier (1997)
Fosse (1999)
Over and Over (1999) – working title: The Skin Of Our Teeth
The Visit (2001)
Curtains (2006) – additional lyrics by Kander and Rupert Holmes
All About Us (2007 revision of Over and Over)
The Scottsboro Boys (2010) (Additional lyrics by Kander)
The Landing (2013) - lyrics by Greg Pierce
Kid Victory (2015) - lyrics by Greg Pierce
The Beast in the Jungle (2018)
New York, New York (2023) - lyrics by Fred Ebb with additional lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda

Film

Kander and Ebb also contributed songs for the following movies:

Cabaret (1972) – 12 songs (mostly originally from the musical of the same name)
Funny Lady (1975) – 6 songs
Lucky Lady (1976) – 2 songs
A Matter of Time, aka Nina (1976) – 2 songs
New York, New York (1977) – 4 songs
French Postcards (1979) – 1 song
Stepping Out (1991) – 1 song ("Stepping Out")
Chicago (2002) – 15 songs (mostly originally from the musical of the same name, plus one song cut from the original show, which runs under the end credits)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025) – 14 songs (mostly originally from the musical of the same name)
Film scores
Something for Everyone (1970)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Still of the Night (1982)
Blue Skies Again (1983)
Places in the Heart (1984)
An Early Frost (TV film, NBC, 1985)
I Want to Go Home (1989)
Billy Bathgate (1991)
Breathing Lessons (TV film, CBS, 1994)
The Boys Next Door (TV film, CBS, 1996)

Television

Liza! (1970)
Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back (1973) (Frank Sinatra)
Liza with a Z (1972)
Gypsy in my Soul (1976) (Shirley MacLaine)
Baryshnikov on Broadway (1980)
Liza in London (1986)
Sam Found Out, A Triple Play (1988)
Liza Minnelli, Live From Radio City Music Hall (1992)