Norman Luboff

Norman Kador Luboff was born on May 14, 1917 to a working class family in Chicago, Illinois. His music experience began at home, where Luboff, his older brother Avy, and their parents entertained themselves with group singing. He took piano lessons, and participated in his school choir and orchestra. He graduated from high school in 1935. Luboff entered a music competition and won a scholarship to Central YMCA College, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in music in 1939. It was there that he became friends with Ray Charles, who like Luboff would go on to a distinguished career as a choir director. After graduation, he continued his studies at the University of Chicago and the American Conservatory of Music, including with noted composer Leo Sowerby. In addition to tutoring, Luboff picked up singing jobs to make ends meet, including as a caroler at Marshall Field's department store during the holidays. He was part of a quartet with his friend Ray Charles, professor Rus Wood, and future singing cowgirl Dale Evans that sang on Chicago radio stations. When he couldn't afford tuition, he sometimes audited classes to further his education. Luboff served in the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. After his military service ended in the spring of 1943, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. ==Radio, TV, and film==

In New York City, Ray Charles helped Luboff get an audition with Lyn Murray, an important contractor for singers in the city. He quickly found work singing baritone on various radio programs, including Your Hit Parade. It was there that, in addition to singing, he began to serve as the backup choral director. By 1945, Luboff had quit singing and was writing arrangements and conducting choirs full time. Luboff moved to Los Angeles in 1948 to become the choral director for The Railroad Hour, a new radio program starring Gordon MacRae. The success of the show led to offers to conduct choirs for Hollywood films. The first film he worked on was Lullaby of Broadway starring Doris Day, released in 1951. Luboff went on to work on more than 80 motion pictures. He provided arrangements for films including The Jazz Singer (1952), The Desert Song (1953), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), and served as a vocal coach for actors like Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954). He also composed and arranged for television shows like the Bell Telephone Hour, the Dinah Shore Show, and Ford Star Jubilee. ==The Norman Luboff Choir==

Doris Day also recorded a companion album for Lullaby of Broadway, with Luboff again arranging and conducting the choir as he had for the film, credited as "The Norman Luboff Choir". This began a decade-long relationship with Columbia Records, providing choral accompaniment to Columbia recording artists such as Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford, Paul Weston & his Orchestra, and Frank Sinatra. Dusing led the choir on a tour to Australia in November 1987 just after Luboff died. The choir ceased performing around this time. ==Music publishing==

Luboff claimed to have composed more than 6000 arrangements during his career. During the 1950s, he founded Walton Music to publish his works. Later it became an important outlet for both domestic and international choral composition, allowing composers such as Waldemar Åhlén of Sweden and Egil Hovland of Norway to have their works published in the United States. After Luboff's death in 1987, his widow Gunilla continued to operate the company until it was sold to GIA Publications in 2013. In 1965, Luboff published an anthology of folk music that he co-wrote with Win Stracke. Titled Songs of Man: The International Book of Folk Songs, the book details 180 folk songs from around the world with music and illustration. ==Personal life and death==

One of Luboff's fellow singers on Your Hit Parade was Elizabeth "Betty" Mulliner. As his recording career diminished in the late 1960s, Luboff continued to find himself in demand as a guest conductor and educator, participating in choral workshops at home and abroad, especially in the Scandinavian countries. During a trip to Sweden in 1971 to conduct the Swedish Radio Choir, Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television produced a documentary about his visit titled (Norman Luboff in Sweden). Luboff became acquainted with the producer of the program, Gunilla Marcus, and two and a half years later they were married. Luboff and Gunilla moved from New York to Bynum, North Carolina, in 1985 to enjoy the rural lifestyle. It was there that Luboff died on September 22, 1987, ten months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was cremated, and his wife took his ashes to Gotland, Sweden, where they had a summer home. Much of his personal archives were donated to the Library of Congress in 1993 as the Norman Luboff Papers. ==Discography==