“Sheldon Soffer, who ran his eponymous artist management firm from 1960 until his retirement in 1999, died at his summer home in Fort Myers, FL, on June 23, 2021,” writes Susan Elliott in Wednesday’s (7/7) Musical America (subscription required). “He was 93, according to his nephew and caretaker, Mitchell Sikora…. Born August 20, 1927 … he was raised in the Bronx…. After graduating from the High School for Music and Art and Queens College, he earned a fellowship to teach music appreciation at UC Berkeley, where he studied composition with Roger Sessions, graduating in 1950 with a Master’s Degree in Conducting. He later studied conducting with Fritz Steidry at the Metropolitan Opera. After a brief conducting career … he moved on to artist management in 1960…. His roster included the Little Orchestra Society in the early Sixties; the American Dance Festival, starting in 1973; singers Elly Ameling, whom he brought to the United States in 1968, Gerard Souzay, and Lucy Shelton, among others; conductors including Robert Spano, Michael Morgan, Joanne Falletta, and Margaret Hillis; the Empire Brass Quintet; and dance companies and choreographers…. He was a long-time board member and onetime chair of Young Concert Artists and endowed the Sheldon Soffer New Music Fund…. Soffer was preceded in death by his five older siblings and his partner of 28 years, Stanley Segal.”
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