Artie Kane (born Aaron Cohen; April 14, 1929 – June 21, 2022) was an American pianist, film score composer, and conductor with a career spanning over six decades.
As a pianist in Hollywood studios, Kane worked with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, John Williams, and Quincy Jones.
He composed the music for over 250 television shows. Some of his works for television include Wonder Woman, Vegas, Hotel, Dynasty, Matlock, A Question of Guilt, and Man Against the Mob. Kane also composed the film scores for five motion pictures including The Bat People, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Eyes of Laura Mars, Night of the Juggler, and Wrong Is Right.
During his career, he conducted on over 60 motion pictures at MGM, Disney, Universal, Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony, Columbia Pictures, and Paramount.
In 1976, Kane was nominated for a Grammy Award along with Ralph Grierson for a two-piano George Gershwin Album, S Wonderful on Angel Records. He was inducted into the Columbus Senior Musicians Hall of Fame in 1998 and is a co-author of the book, Music to My Years: Love and Life Between the Notes.
Biography
Early life
Kane was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1929. His family was Jewish. His mother, Sarah Berman, emigrated from Belarus in 1914. His father, Nathan Cohen, whose family members were Russian musicians, immigrated to the United States from Russia. Nathan served two years in the U.S. Army in France during WWI. Kane's parents married in 1924 in Columbus. Kane's father died a week before his third birthday. He was raised by his mother and uncle, Joe Berman, whom Kane credited for inspiring him to become a musician.
Kane took to the piano at the age of three and was considered a child prodigy. At four, he won first prize in a statewide contest, competing with children of seven and eight. At 10, he studied under Agnes Wright and went to New York once a year to play for Prof. Alexander Siloti, Rachmaninoff's teacher who advised Kane as to his next season's study.
In 1938, Kane won a scholarship to The Columbus Boychoir School where he first sang alto, and within a year became an accompanist and featured performer until 1947. He later studied piano at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In 1943, after a performance at Town Hall in New York City, he received a scholarship to study classical piano with Djane Lavoie-Herz in Manhattan.
In 1944, Kane returned to Columbus and attended South High School, played in Snook Neal's band and was hired by radio station WBNS where he played daily radio segments of classical piano, plus his own arrangements of popular music.
In 1947 at eighteen years old, he was hired as a pianist in the band at Club Gloria in Columbus, Ohio with comedian Harry Jarkey. From the radio work and write-ups in local newspapers, the conductor Izler Solomon invited Kane to play Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for a Pops concert with the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra.
On October 19, 1948, Kane changed his name from Aaron Cohen to Artie Kane on the advice of Matt Gilbert, a cartoonist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer who suggested it as a more distinctive stage name. His mother Sarah Cohen also changed her name from Sarah B. Cohen to Sally B. Kane.
Holiday on Ice
In 1949, Artie Kane went to Toledo, Ohio, to audition as pianist for Holiday On Ice and was hired based on his reputation. He spent eight years on the road as rehearsal pianist and pianist/conductor for the company.
From 1953 to 1956, Kane was the rehearsal and show pianist for Norwegian figure skater and Olympic medalist Sonja Henie during the European Holiday On Ice Tour. He also appeared in NBC's first color television spectacular, Sonja Henie’s Holiday on Ice on December 22, 1956.
New York
In 1956, Kane left the ice show and went to New York City working as a Broadway rehearsal and audition pianist and playing nightclubs. He was hired as pianist and assistant conductor at the Roxy Theatre, for the Roxy Orchestra under conductor Robert Boucher, playing and conducting four shows a day, seven days a week for two years. His work is included on the Bob Boucher's orchestra LP record Sightseeing in Sound with a solo opening of ragtime piano.
Prior to the Roxy's closing, Kane was offered a job as Jaye P. Morgan's on-the-road conductor and pianist. Kane conducted for her in night clubs, at personal appearances, and recording sessions and they lived together in the Upper East Side of New York City.