Biography
Irwin Kostal (1911–1994) was an American musical arranger, orchestrator and conductor who worked extensively in film, television and theatre. Born in Chicago, he taught himself arranging by studying scores at his local library and began his professional career as a staff arranger for the NBC radio programme Design for Listening.
He later arranged for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows and The Garry Moore Show on television, and orchestrated several Broadway productions including the original stage version of West Side Story. In film he served as music arranger, conductor and supervisor on West Side Story (1961), for which he shared an Academy Award, and on The Sound of Music (1965), which earned him a second Oscar for Best Music Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment. He contributed to numerous Disney productions including Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Pete’s Dragon (1977). Kostal was named a Disney Legend in 2004 and served as president of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers.
