GIGI CICHELLERO

Born: December 1st, 1923, Milan (Italy)

Died: December 15th, 1979, Cusago (Italy)

Nationality: Italian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Luigi ‘Gigi’ Cichellero worked as a composer and conductor for Italian national broadcaster RAI, until he was called away by the Italian branch of record company Philips to be their artistic director. Cichellero composed songs for the likes of Johnny Dorelli, Mina, and Tony Dallara. In the early 1960s, he founded his own company, GTA Records, based in his hometown Milan. Artists working under the aegis of Cichellero include Nicola Arigliano, Renata Mauro, Bruno Canfora, Al Korvin, and Roberto Rangone. In 1968, he sold GTA to Lorenzo Sampietro, who incorporated it into Miura Records.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 

Gigi Cichellero frequently conducted TV shows for RAI. Amongst these were the music contests Canzonissima, and, more notably, the San Remo Festival in 1963, of which he was the musical director. He accompanied one of the vocalists of the winning song ‘Uno per tutte’, Emilio Pericoli, to London, where that year’s Eurovision Song Contest was staged. Conducted by Cichellero, the Italian entry came fourth. It was to remain his only Eurovision participation; in 1964, on the other hand, Cichellero returned as a conductor to the San Remo Festival.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1963 London

Country – Italy

Song title – "Uno per tutte"

Rendition – Emilio Pericoli

Lyrics – Giulio Rapetti "Mogol" / Alberto Testa

Composition – Tony Renis

Studio arrangement – Iller Pattacini

Live orchestration – Gigi Cichellero

Conductor – Gigi Cichellero

Score – 3rd place (37 votes)

ERWIN HALLETZ

Born: July 12th, 1923, Vienna (Austria)

Died: October 27th, 2008, Vienna (Austria)

Nationality: Austrian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Erwin Halletz studied violin and clarinet at the Wiener Musikakademie. During World War II, he was a member of various orchestras. In 1945, he became first violinist of the Wiener Tanzorchester, which performed with vocalist Horst Winter (who was to be Austria’s representative in the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest); Halletz also composed and arranged music for this ensemble. In 1950, he took over the baton of the orchestra and led it during many tours and recording sessions with artists such as Peter Alexander, Johannes Heesters, Zarah Leander (‘Wunderbar’), and Udo Jürgens. From 1961 to 2002, Halletz worked and lived in Monaco, being the principal arranger and conductor of the Monte Carlo Light Symphony Orchestra. His numerous songs were interpreted by Connie Francis, Corry Brokken, and many others. 

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In 1963, Halletz wrote the Austrian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder’ (performed half in German, half in English by Israeli vocalist Carmela Corren). This craftily written melody was conducted Halletz as well. In the contest, held in London, Halletz and Corren obtained a seventh position on the scoreboard.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1963 London

Country – Austria

Song title – "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder (Who Knows What Comes Tomorrow)"

Rendition – Carmela Corren

German lyrics – Peter Wehle

English lyrics – Norman Newell

Composition – Erwin Halletz

Studio arrangement – Charles Nowa

(studio orchestra conducted by Charles Nowa)

Live orchestration – Erwin Halletz

Conductor – Erwin Halletz

Score – 7th place (16 votes)

CINICO ANGELINI

Born: November 12th, 1901, Crescentino (Italy)
Died: July 7th, 1983, Rome (Italy)
Nationality: Italian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Cinico Angelini (pseudonym of Angelo Cinico) was born in a village in the north-western Italian region of Piedmont. Being an autodidact at the violin, he did not go to conservatory. At 19 years of age, he moved to Turin and played as a violinist in small entertainment ensembles in coffee houses. In 1925, he formed his first orchestra, the Perroquet Royal Band, with which he worked in Caracas, Venezuela, for four years. Upon his return in Italy, he formed a new dance band with which he performed in the Sala Gay, a well-known entertainment bar in Turin. In the course of the 1930s, Angelini and his orchestra became frequent guests in radio programmes of Italian nationwide radio (EIAR), in which they performed light opera repertoire as well as romantic and popular songs. In 1938, Angelini was contracted by EIAR and formed a radio orchestra. His trademark was the traditional orchestra d’archi, a string-dominated ensemble in which brass and especially percussion did not feature prominently.

After the war, he and his orchestra continued to work for Italian radio, working with artists such as Nilla Pizzi, Michele Montanari, and Trio Lescano. In 1951, Angelini’s orchestra accompanied all entries in the very first Sanremo Song Festival, won by Nilla Pizzi. Angelini worked as a musical director in the Sanremo Festival on seven more occasions between 1952 and 1962. In the early 1960s, with a new generation of singers heavily influenced by rock ‘n’ roll making their mark, Angelini’s string orchestra sound was progressively deemed outdated, which resulted in him not being asked again for the Sanremo Festival.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Cinico Angelini joined the winner of the Sanremo Festival to the Eurovision Song Contest twice. In 1960, in the Royal Festival Hall in London, he conducted the orchestra for Renato Rascel who sang ‘Romantica’ - in an arrangement by none other than future soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone. Two years later, he travelled to Luxembourg with Claudio Villa, who sang a song by Domenico Modugno called ‘Addio, addio’. Neither of these entries did particularly well in the contest, finishing in the bottom-half of the table.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1960 London

Country – Italy

Song title – "Romantica"

Rendition – Renato Rascel

Lyrics – Dino Verde

Composition – Renato Rascel

Studio arrangement – Marcello De Martino

Live orchestration – Ennio Morricone

Conductor – Cinico Angelini

Score – 8th place (5 votes)

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Italy

Song title – "Addio, addio"

Rendition – Claudio Villa

Lyrics – Franco Migliacci

Composition – Domenico Modugno

Studio arrangement – Cinico Angelini

Live orchestration – Cinico Angelini

Conductor – Cinico Angelini

Score – 9th place (3 votes)

WALLY STOTT (ANGELA MORLEY)

Born: March 10th, 1924, Leeds, England (United Kingdom)

Died: January 14th, 2009, Scottsdale, Arizona (United States)

Nationality: British

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

In the 1950s and 1960s, Wally Stott was one of the most in-demand arrangers in the London recording studios, working with the likes of Dusty Springfield and Shirley Bassey. Moreover, he composed and arranged music for various radio shows, most importantly Hancock’s Half Hour. In 1972, he underwent a sex reassignment surgery in the USA and became Angela Morley. She worked as a film composer and as such, wrote the music to The Little Prince and The Slipper And The Rose, both of which were nominated for an Oscar. She also composed part of the score for Watership Down. In the 1980s, she wrote numerous arrangements for the Boston Pops Orchestra.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Wally Stott's first Eurovision involvement was a quirky one - in 1960, when the festival was held in London, Robert Stolz commissioned him to write the orchestration to Austria's entry, 'Du hast mich so fasziniert', composed and conducted by the old maestro Stolz himself. 

Two years later, Stott was back - this time as a conductor himself for Ronnie Carroll, an artist he worked with regularly in those days in the recording studio. When Carroll was chosen to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 in Luxembourg, it was Stott who accompanied him to the festival as his conductor. Carroll’s ‘Ring-A-Ding girl’ came 4th. 

One year later, Ronnie Carroll again won the British preselection and once again, his song (this time ‘Say Wonderful Things’) was orchestrated by Wally Stott. That year, however, the international final was organised in London and the UK entry was conducted by the musical director of the broadcast, Eric Robinson.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1960 London

Country – Austria

Song title – “Du hast mich so fasziniert”

Rendition – Horst 'Harry' Winter

Lyrics – Robert Gilbert

Composition – Robert Stolz

Studio arrangement – none

Live orchestration – Wally Stott

Conductor – Robert Stolz

Score – 7th place (6 votes)

1962 Luxembourg

Country – United Kingdom

Song title – "Ring-A-Ding Girl"

Rendition – Ronnie Carroll

Lyrics – Syd Cordell

Composition – Stan Butcher

Studio arrangement – Wally Stott

(studio orchestra conducted by Wally Stott)

Live orchestration – Wally Stott

Conductor – Wally Stott

Score – 4th place (10 votes)

1963 London

Country – United Kingdom

Song title – "Say Wonderful Things"

Rendition – Ronnie Carroll

Lyrics – Norman Newell

Composition – Philip Green

Studio arrangement – Wally Stott

(studio orchestra conducted by Wally Stott)

Live orchestration – Wally Stott

Conductor – Eric Robinson (MD)

Score – 4th place (28 votes)

WEBSITE

www.angelamorley.com

CÉDRIC DUMONT

Born: July 24th, 1916, Hamburg (Germany)

Died: May 24th, 2007, Küsnacht (Switzerland)

Nationality: Swiss

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Cédric Dumont (Charles Frédéric Cédric Dumont-dit-Voitel) studied piano, violoncello, composing, and conducting at the Zurich Conservatoire. Between 1942 and 1946, he was pianist in the Cabaret Cornichon. After World War II, he worked as an arranger in the Hollywood studios for a while, after which he returned to Switzerland and became a record producer for the Zurich based Jecklin label. 

Dumont founded the Unterhaltungsorchester Cédric Dumont in 1946, consisting of twelve musicians; the orchestra built up a repertoire of music of different styles, ranging from entertainment, jazz, and folk tunes to light classical pieces. In 1961, the orchestra was contracted by Radio Beromünster, the main German-language radio station in Switzerland. In 1966, Dumont gave up the musical directorship of his orchestra (he was succeeded by Hans Moeckel) to become Head of Entertainment of Radiostudio Zurich; seven years later, he was appointed director of this radio station. After he was pensioned, he took to writing, publishing books on cookery and wine, as well as biographies of classical composers Schubert and Beethoven.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Cédric Dumont conducted two Swiss Eurovision Song Contest entries. In 1960, he accompanied Anita Traversi to London, where she sang ‘Cielo e terra’, composed by Mario Robbiani, which reached an eighth position. Two years later, in Luxembourg, Dumont conducted the orchestra for Jean Philippe, who, with the song ‘Le retour’, came tenth. On both occasions, Dumont conducted someone else's arrangement.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1960 London

Country – Switzerland

Song title – “Cielo e terra”

Rendition – Anita Traversi

Lyrics – Alberto Bottazzi

Composition – Mario Robbiani

Studio arrangement – Giulio Libano

(studio orchestra conducted by Giulio Libano)

Live orchestration – Mario Robbiani

Conductor – Cédric Dumont

Score – 8th place (5 votes)

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Switzerland

Song title – "Le retour"

Rendition – Jean Philippe 

Lyrics – Emile Gardaz

Composition – Géo Voumard

Studio arrangement – Jean Bouchéty

(studio orchestra conducted by Jean Bouchéty)

Live orchestration – Jean Bouchéty

Conductor – Cédric Dumont

Score – 10th place (2 votes)

ROLF-HANS MÜLLER

Born: April 10th, 1928, Dresden (Germany)

Died: December 26th, 1990, Baden-Baden (West Germany)

Nationality: German

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Rolf-Hans Müller worked as a pianist, composer, and arranger for the Süd West Rundfunk (SWR) radio station in Baden-Baden from 1949. Between 1958 and 1979, he was the conductor of the SWR Tanzorchester, with which he made tours in Asia and America. He composed the music to several films and TV series, amongst which the very popular detective Tatort.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In 1962, the Deutsche Schlagerfestspiele were organized in Baden-Baden; all entrants were accompanied by Müller’s SWR Tanzorchester. The festival was won by Conny Froboess with ‘Zwei kleine Italiener’, a tune by Christian Bruhn and Georg Buschor (arranged by Gerhard Eisenmann) which was to become one of the most famous German-language songs of all time. In 1962, incidentally, the winner of the Schlagerfestspiele automatically became the West German entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest, which was due in Luxembourg. Müller came along to Luxembourg to conduct the festival orchestra for Froboess, who, in spite of high expectations, did not win and landed a fifth spot.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1962 Luxembourg

Country – West Germany

Song title – "Zwei kleine Italiener"

Rendition – Conny Froboess

Lyrics – Georg Buschor

Composition – Christian Bruhn

Studio arrangement – Gerhard Eisenmann

Live orchestration – Gerhard Eisenmann

Conductor – Rolf-Hans Müller

Score – 6th place (9 votes)

EGON KJERRMAN

Born: September 25th, 1920, Gothenburg (Sweden)

Died: March 13th, 2007, Västerås (Sweden)

Nationality: Swedish

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Egon (born as Ernst Napoleon) Kjerrman was a composer and conductor who made his debut in the music scene as a substitute conductor for the Stora Teatern in his native Gothenburg. During the 1940s, he lived in Chicago (USA) for a number of years, where he worked as a copper but composed music at the same time. Upon his return in Sweden (1952), he was appointed conductor at SR, Swedish Radio. He collaborated in many radio and TV shows, but is best remembered for his presentation (1956-66) of the annual open-air sing-along event Allsång på Skansen, of which he was the musical director at the same time, playing all music with his Radiotjänsts Varietéorkester. Occasionally, he tried his hand at singing himself, most notably with ‘Kom ner från taket’, a cover of ‘Kom van dat dak af’ composed and originally performed by Dutch rock-‘n’-roll icon Peter Koelewijn.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In 1962, Egon Kjerrman led the SR Underhållningsorkester during the Swedish Eurovision preselection, which was won by Inger Berggren and ‘Sol och vår’ (arranged by Sven-Olof Walldoff). This schlager song came seventh in a field of sixteen competing entries. 

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Sweden

Song title – "Sol och vår"

Rendition – Inger Berggren 

Lyrics – Åke Gerhard

Composition – Ulf Källqvist

Studio arrangement – Hans Wahlgren

(studio orchestra conducted by Hans Wahlgren)

Live orchestration – Sven-Olof Walldoff

Conductor – Egon Kjerrman

Score – 7th place (4 votes)

BRUNO UHER

Born: March 12th, 1912, Vienna (Austria)

Died: October 31st, 1976, Vienna (Austria)

Nationality: Austrian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Bruno Uher was a composer, arranger and musical director who worked in his hometown Vienna as long as he lived. Before World War II, he worked as an arranger. One of the earliest mentions of him is as the writer of a piano arrangement of a slow-fox by composer Rudolph Bartram, ‘Meine unglückliche Liebe’. Later, he composed soundtracks for movie pictures, such as Wiener G’schichten (1940) and Skandal im Ischl (1957). As a musical director, he recorded the soundtracks of many other films, an example being Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume, the title song of which was composed by Robert Stolz. Uher wrote countless songs in the Vienna Schlager genre, such as ‘Ich hab’ mich für Grinzing ein’n Dienstmann engagiert’ (sung by Hans Moser) and ‘Der Wiener braucht sein Stammcafé’ (sung by Peter Alexander).

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In 1962, Bruno Uher composed the Austrian Eurovision entry ‘Nur in der Wiener Luft’, a celebration of the sounds and sights of Vienna to which he had written the lyrics himself. This quite old-fashioned sounding crossover between opera and popular style music was sung by an operetta singer of the Wiener Volksoper, Eleonore Schwarz. Uher conducted the orchestra for her during the performance in Luxembourg, but to no avail; together with three other countries, Austria finished at the bottom of the scoreboard without a single point.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Austria

Song title – “Nur in der Wiener Luft”

Rendition – Eleonore Schwarz

Lyrics – Bruno Uher

Composition – Bruno Uher

Studio arrangement – none

Live orchestration – Bruno Uher

Conductor – Bruno Uher

Score – 13th place (0 votes)