John McClure

• Name — John McClure • Birth Name — John Taylor McClure • Born — 28 June 1929 • Birthplace — Rahway, New Jersey, United States • Died — 17 June 2014 • Place of death — Belmont, Vermont, United States • Occupation — * Record producer • recording engineer • Known for — Recording classical, jazz and popular music • Education — New York University • Awards — * Grammy Award for Best Classical Album (1962, 1965, 1967) • Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album (1985) • Robert De Cormier Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)

McClure was born on June 28, 1929, in Rahway, New Jersey, United States. He had one brother. He grew up in nearby Colonia, New Jersey and learned to play the piano by ear. He later claimed that he never was very good at reading musical scores. He studied at Oberlin College and at New York University, but did not graduate. After working in a number of other jobs, he obtained a junior position with the Carnegie Hall Recording Company in 1950. He was soon employed as a recording engineer for Columbia Records and by the late 1950s became a producer. From the early 1970s, he operated in a freelance capacity. He engineered Bruno Walter's cycle of the nine Beethoven symphonies with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. He also worked on over thirty recordings with Igor Stravinsky, and around 200 with Leonard Bernstein. He oversaw recordings by the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams, as well as those of Aaron Copland, Isaac Stern, André Previn, and Rudolf Serkin. Away from orchestral music, he also worked with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Dave Brubeck, Joe Williams, and Peter, Paul and Mary. In the late 1970s, he helped to record the strings on Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album, The Wall. He was married four times. He married his fourth wife, Susan Presson, in 1991, and she outlived him. He had three sons and a daughter, and at the time of his death, three grandchildren. McClure died on June 17, 2014, at his home in Belmont, Vermont, where he kept his Grammy Awards in a box in his barn.