He was an orchestral conductor, arranger, composer and harmonica player born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who began his professional career as a member of the Borrah Minevitch Harmonica Rascals. He would also arrange music for them and by the early 1940s he had moved onto MGM Studios.
Often uncredited he was an arranger on the films Meet Me In St. Louis and Girl Crazy among many others. During WWII in 1945 he became musical director for the Vaughn Monroe Orchestra and he followed that in 1950 by becoming Chief Arranger for Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra who he would stay with for over three decades.
These arrangements are still used by the current orchestra in their concerts and recordings. As a recording artist in his own right he had several hit singles in the 1950s including “Ruby” that was taken from the film Ruby Gentry, “April in Portugal” and “Theme from the Threepenny Opera”.
He later moved on to take the post of conductor of the Pops Orchestras of the Saint Louis Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestra London Canada, the Hartford Symphony and the Detroit Symphony.
He was a leading guest conductor for many international orchestras and his own compositions are regularly played as part of Pops orchestra repertoires. In 1979 he was awarded the title McDonnell Douglas Principal Pops Conductor.
He passed away in a hospice in New York in 2014 when he was 93 years old.
Richard Hayman & His Symphony Orchestra recordings
Leroy Anderson compositions
Blue Tango
Naxos 8.990011 (CD: Waltzing Cat)
Fiddle Faddle
Naxos 8.990011 (CD: Waltzing Cat)
Irish Suite
Naxos 8.555016 (CD: Irish Rhapsody)
Naxos 8.990018 (CD: Irish Rhapsody)
Plink, Plank, Plunk!
Naxos 8.559125 (CD: Anderson: Orchestral Favourites)
Naxos 8.990011 (CD: The Waltzing Cat)
Promenade
Naxos 8.559125 (CD: Anderson: Orchestral Favourites)
The Syncopated Clock
Naxos 8.559125 (CD: Anderson: Orchestral Favourites)
The Typewriter
Naxos 8.559125 (CD: Anderson: Orchestral Favourites)
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra recordings
Leroy Anderson compositions
A Christmas Festival
Naxos 8.990005 (CD: A Christmas Festival)
Conductor – Richard Hayman
Sleigh Ride
Naxos 8.990006 (CD: Silent Night)
Conductor – Richard Hayman
Naxos 8.990013 (CD: Joy to the World)
Conductor – Richard Hayman
Song of the Bells
Naxos 8.990013 (CD: Joy to the World)
Conductor – Richard Hayman
Here is his performance of “Ruby”…
Sources:
- http://www.slso.org/musc/hayman.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hayman
- http://www.spaceagepop.com/hayman.htm
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/128975-Richard-Hayman
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/richard-hayman-mn0000203889/biography