IM MEMORIAM CONCERTO for TRUMPET, PERCUSSION AND WINDS by LALO SCHIFRIN (Buenos Aires, June 21, 1932 – Los Angeles, June 26, 2025)
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- Jul 6
- 3 min read
[#311] July 07, 2025 1967 | Grade 6 | 15’ – 20’ | Concerto
Published by AWSO
Im Memoriam Boris Claudio “Lalo” Schifrin, Argentinian pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor, who passed away on June 26, 2025, at the age of 93 years old.
His Concerto for Trumpet, Percussion and Winds is our Composition of the Week.
Concerto for Trumpet was written for the Robert Austin Boudreau and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra in 1967.
The concerto is structured in three movements, 1. Allegro Moderato; 2. Lento non troppo; 3. Vivace; it has a duration of 18 minutes, and it is scored for the following instrumentation:
Solo Trumpet 3(picc,alto).3(EH).4 (Eb, BCl).3(Cbsn)/5.5.5.1.Timp.P(5).Harp.Piano
“This work was commissioned on the recommendation of Dizzy Gillespie – one of the best concertos I know for trumpet.”
Robert Austin Boudreau
American Wind Symphony Conductor
Lalo Schifrin was best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations. He was a five-time Grammy Award winner; he was nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards.
Schifrin's best known compositions included the themes from Mission: Impossible and Mannix, as well as the scores to Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979), and the Rush Hour trilogy (1998–2007). Schifrin was also noted for collaborations with Clint Eastwood from the late 1960s to the 1980s, particularly the Dirty Harry film series. He composed the Paramount Pictures fanfare used from 1976 to 2004.
Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 21, 1932, to a Jewish family and named Boris Claudio.The nickname "Lalo" was the normal Argentinian diminutive for his second name of Claudio. When he came to the US, he changed his name to Lalo legally to simplify his contracts.
His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades.At the age of six, Schifrin began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim, the father of pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. Schifrin began studying piano with the Greek-Russian expatriate Andrea Karalin, the onetime head of the Kyiv Conservatory, and harmony with Argentine composer Juan Carlos Paz. During this time, Schifrin also became interested in jazz.
Although Schifrin studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, he became interested in music. At age 20, he successfully applied for a scholarship to the Conservatoire de Paris. At night, he played jazz in the Paris clubs. In 1955, Schifrin played piano with Argentine bandoneon giant Ástor Piazzolla and represented his country at the International Jazz Festival in Paris.
After returning home to Argentina in his twenties, Schifrin formed a jazz orchestra, a 16-piece band that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. He also began accepting other film, television, and radio assignments. In 1956, he met Dizzy Gillespie and offered to write an extended work for Gillespie's big band. Schifrin completed the work, Gillespiana, in 1958, which was recorded in 1960. Later in 1958, Schifrin began working as an arranger for Xavier Cugat's popular Latin dance orchestra.
While in New York in 1960, Schifrin again met Gillespie, who had by this time disbanded his big band for financial reasons. Gillespie invited Schifrin to fill the vacant piano chair in his quintet. Schifrin immediately accepted and moved to New York City. Schifrin wrote a second extended composition for Gillespie, The New Continent, which was recorded in 1962.
On 26 May 1963, he recorded an album, Buenos Aires Blues, with Duke Ellington’s alto saxophonist, Johnny Hodges. Schifrin wrote two compositions for the album: Dreary Blues and the title track B. A. Blues. In the same year Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had Schifrin under contract, offered the composer his first Hollywood film assignment with the African adventure Rhino! Schifrin moved to Los Angeles and became a U.S. resident in 1963. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1969.
In 2019, he received an Honorary Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring."
Other works for winds include:
• Gillespiana Suite, for trumpet and Brass (1960)
• The New Continent, for trumpet and Jazz Orchestra (1961)
• La Nouvelle Orleans, for Wind Quintet (1987)
• Concerto for Percussion and Wind Orchestra (AWSO commission, 2006)
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