obituaries
‘Underground’ Jazz Songwriter,
Composer and Performer
Edward Kalendar Dies at 80
He knew and could perform folk music
from around the world, according to his
son-in-law, Aaron Picht.

“He was the Stevie Wonder of
Uzbekistan,” Picht said, describing how
he would write a tune, record it and
suddenly everyone would be singing
it. “Edward was an extremely versatile
musician. We all had musical relation-
ships with him.”
Kalendar’s family of three moved
to New York City in 1994, perform-
ing with the American Society for the
Advancement of Cantorial Arts, along-
side prominent artists at the Vail Jazz
Festival and even doing some stand-up
comedy with a Russian-Jewish comedy
troupe. Kalendar, who was a member of
the American Society of Authors,
Composers and Publishers, played the
organ at Temple Shalom in Long Island,
New York, when he wasn’t sharing big-
ger stages.

He performed at the United Nations,
Rockefeller Center, Tilles Center, Alice
Tully Hall and the Th eater Gran Vía
Madrid. He once shared a program with
Victor Borge at a private school gradua-
tion in Manhattan.

Kalendar’s compositions included 27
fi lm scores and more than 200 classical
and popular songs. Several volumes of his
Jewish music arrangements enjoy world-
wide distribution, according to his family.

He also shared his musical acumen
Edward Kalendar performs at the Rainbow Room in 2007.

Courtesy of the Kalendar family
HEATHER M. ROSS | STAFF WRITER
E dward Kalendar, whose love of
underground jazz music heard
while living in Ukraine led to a
prolifi c career as a composer, conductor,
jazz pianist and educator, died on June 11
at his home in Philadelphia. He was 80.

Kalendar led an underground jazz
band and was a pioneer of that genre
in the former Soviet Union during
the 1950s and ’60s, daughter Elina
Kalendarova Picht said.

“[At the time], anything coming from
the West was considered part of the
bourgeoisie culture and ‘couldn’t be
good,’” she said.

Kalendar, who attended Con-
gregation Kesher Israel, fell in love with
jazz while listening to Voice of America
broadcasts when he was growing up.

He learned to play by ear, as he did with
many piano pieces.

At one point, the dean of a conser-
vatory Kalendar was studying at called
him into his offi ce aft er learning he was
practicing jazz and told him that his
involvement with the genre could nega-
tively impact his musical career, accord-
ing to Kalendarova Picht. However, his
love for the genre persisted: Aft er 1964,
he led his underground jazz band for
another six years.

Kalendar was trained in classical
music at conservatories in Tashkent and
Moscow, where he studied with other
prominent composers and musicians.

Music was not Kalendar’s only love
there. He met his wife, Asya Kalendar,
while studying at the conservatory; they
married in 1967.

His musical career offi cially began in
1968, as he began serving as the con-
ductor of the Tashkent Radio Orchestra
through 1976. He also was the music
director for the Music Folklore Th eater
in Moscow from 1991 to 1994.

Kalendar had a great appreciation for
folk music, including Jewish folk music.

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