Carmen Dragon

From Wind Repertory Project
Carmen Dragon

Biography

Carmen Dragon (28 July 1914, Antioch, Calif. – 28 March 1984, Santa Monica, Calif.) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger.

Dragon was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Tomorrow (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950). With Morris Stoloff, he shared the 1944 Oscar for the popular Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin. According to his website, he was awarded an Emmy in 1964.

He made a popular orchestral arrangement of America the Beautiful and also re-arranged it for symphonic band.

Dragon conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and they performed on The Standard School Broadcast on NBC in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970s. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for Capitol Records during the 1950s with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Dragon also hosted a regular classical music radio show broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network - now the American Forces Network - well into the 1980s.


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