Sheldon Harnick Cause of Death

American lyricist, Sheldon Harnick has been reported dead. According to reports, he died of natural causes at his home in Manhattan on June 23, 2023. He was 99 years old.

Born on April 30, 1924, Sheldon Harnick began writing music while still in Carl Schurz High School in Chicago. He graduated from the Northwestern University School of Music, with a Bachelor of Music degree. At the beginning of his career, he worked with various orchestras in the Chicago area and then moved to New York.

He met Jerry Bock in 1956 and formed one of the most important musical partnerships of the ’60s. Their first musical was The Body Beautiful, running for only 60 performances in 1958, but Fiorello! (1959) ran for 795 performances and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Fiddler on the Roof (1964) also became one of the most cherished of all Broadway musicals.

Harnick wrote the libretto for the opera Coyote Tales with music by Henry Mollicone, which received its world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in March 1988. He also wrote the book, music, and lyrics to the musical Dragons, which was performed in 2003 at the Luna Stage in Montclair, New Jersey.

He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book with Norton Juster for the musical The Phantom Tollbooth, based on the book by Juster. The musical premiered at Kennedy Center in 2007.

In 2014, Harnick released an album dubbed Sheldon Harnick: Hidden Treasures (1949-2013), which includes recordings of song demos and pieces cut from Broadway shows from his private collection.