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John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York" (officially known as "Theme from New York, New York"). The team received numerous nominations, including eleven for Tony Awards (won four, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award for Kander), two nominations for Academy Awards, and five for Golden Globe Awards.
Kander attended Westport High School before transferring to the Pembroke Country-Day School. During World War II, Kander joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps. After completing his training in California and sailing between San Francisco and Asia, Kander left the Corps on May 3, 1946. However, due to rule changes governing national service, Kander was forced to enlist in the Army Reserves in September of the same year, after having completed one semester at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. During the Korean War, Kander was ordered back into active duty, but he had to remain in New York City for six months of observation after a medical exam revealed scars on his lungs. He was officially discharged on July 3, 1957.
Kander graduated with a degree in music at Oberlin College in 1951 and went on to graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a protégé of Douglas Moore and studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. He earned his master's degree from Columbia University in 1953.
Kander's first produced musical was A Family Affair in 1962, written with James Goldman and William Goldman. The same year, Kander met Fred Ebb through their mutual publisher, Tommy Valando. The first song Kander and Ebb wrote together, "My Coloring Book", was made popular by a recording from Sandy Stewart. Their second song, "I Don't Care Much", was made famous by Barbra Streisand, and Kander and Ebb became a permanent team.
In 1965, Kander and Ebb wrote music for their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut.
Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera (including the musicals Zorba, Chicago, The Rink, and Kiss of the Spider Woman) and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television, such as Liza with a Z. Most notably, Kander and Ebb wrote the dramatic title song that Minnelli introduced in her 1977 film, New York, New York, at the request of director Martin Scorsese and co-star Robert De Niro.
The Broadway musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won several 2002 , including for best picture, film editing, costume design, art direction and sound. In his musicological and biographical study of the collaboration of Kander and Ebb, James Leve discusses the full history of Cabaret and Chicago in chapters titled "The Divinely Decadent Lives of Cabaret" and " Chicago: Broadway to Hollywood". As Leve notes, Cabaret, a musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories, was an "ideal vehicle for Kander and Ebb's brittle and self-referential brand of musical theater." This insight also holds true for Chicago.
Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, which was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder's nephew. Kander also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder's Our Town, which took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew.
Ebb died in 2004, and Kander's first musical without Ebb in many years, The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on October 23, 2013. The musical, which was a series of three "mini-musicals", was directed by Walter Bobbie and starred David Hyde Pierce and Julia Murney.
Kander's musical Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. Kid Victory premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017, in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017. Direction was by Liesl Tommy, with choreography by Christopher Windom. The cast featured Jeffry Denman and Karen Ziemba.
Kander (music) and David Thompson (lyrics) wrote the dance play The Beast in the Jungle, which opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Vineyard Theatre. The play was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, and featured Tony Yazbeck and Irina Dvorovenko. Kander (music) collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda (lyrics) for Miranda's Hamildrops series: "Cheering for Me Now" is an uplifting track about New York's ratification of the constitution.
James Leve discusses Kander's prolific career and his late musical style in the essay "John Kander: the First Ninety-Two Years".
| 2002 | "I Move On", Chicago | |||
| "Money, Money", Cabaret | ||||
| 1975 | Best Original Score | Funny Lady | ||
| Best Original Song | "How Lucky Can You Get", Funny Lady | |||
| 1977 | Best Original Song | "New York, New York", New York, New York | ||
| 1968 | Best Musical Theater Album | Cabaret | ||
| 1969 | The Happy Time | |||
| 1970 | Zorba | |||
| 1976 | Chicago | |||
| 1981 | Song of the Year | Theme from New York, New York | ||
| 1982 | Best Musical Theater Album | Woman of the Year | ||
| 1994 | Kiss of the Spider Woman | |||
| 2004 | Best Song Written for Visual Media | "I Move On", Chicago | ||
| Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics | ||||
| 1986 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or Special | An Early Frost | ||
| 1993 | Outstanding Music & Lyrics | "Sorry I Asked", Liza Minnelli Live! From Radio City Music Hall | ||
| 1968 | The Happy Time | |||
| 1976 | Best Original Score | Chicago | ||
| 1978 | The Act | |||
| 1981 | Woman of the Year | |||
| 1984 | The Rink | |||
| 1993 | Kiss of the Spider Woman | |||
| 1997 | Steel Pier | |||
| 2007 | Curtains | |||
| 2011 | The Scottsboro Boys | |||
| 2015 | The Visit | |||
| 2023 | Lifetime Achievement Award | |||
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