Gunther Schuller. Photo: Boston Symphony Orchestra/WBUR

The eminent musician Gunther Schuller died yesterday Sunday June 21st of complications from leukemia, at the age of 89.

He was a composer (200 works), a horn player (principal horn of the Cincinnatti Symphony at the age of 17,  he also played on The Birth of the Cool), conductor, jazz historian (several books), educator and educational administrator at a key period of development for the New England Conservatory in Boston, advocate of the concept of the  Third Stream,  recipient of the Macarthur Foundation “genius” award in 1991, and of an NEA Jazz Master Award in 2008. This tribute telling his life-story in the Boston Globe portrays some of the lifetime’s work of a giant of music.

LINK: Jazz on 3 commissioned Ethan Iverson to interview Gunther Schuller in 2010 – link to the transcribed interview – and much more.