LOS ANGELES — Peter Matz, director, composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor for Broadway, Hollywood and — most prolifically — TV who earned Emmys for programs featuring Barbra Streisand, Burt Bacharach and Carol Burnett, is dead. He was 73.
Matz, also an accomplished pianist who in recent years accompanied his wife, singer Marilynn Lovell, in fund-raising concerts to benefit AIDS victims, died Friday in Los Angeles of lung cancer, his publicist announced.
Matz, known for inserting musical jokes into orchestrations that could break up even professional comedians including Burnett, made a 50-year career out of musical play.