Portrait of Gershon Kingsley

Birthday profile

Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2019)

Born
October 28, 1922
Died
December 10, 2019
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1922

About Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley (born Götz Gustav Ksinski; October 28, 1922 – December 10, 2019) was a German-American composer, a pioneer of electronic music and the Moog synthesizer, a partner in the electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley, founder of the First Moog Quartet, and writer of rock-inspired compositions for Jewish religious ceremonies. Kingsley is most famous for his 1969 influential electronic instrumental composition "Popcorn", and his composition of the WGBH-TV Soundmark. Kingsley conducted and arranged many Broadway musicals, and he composed for film, television shows and commercials. His compositions were eclectic and vary between avant-garde and pop styles. Kingsley also composed classical chamber works, and his opera Raoul was premiered in Bremen, Germany in 2008. His work was recognized with a Tony Award nomination for Best Conductor and Musical Director, two Clio Awards for his work in advertising music, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bob Moog Foundation. Kingsley died on December 10, 2019, at the age of 97 in Manhattan, New York. On January 30, 1970, the group became the first to ever play electronic music in Carnegie Hall. They had originally met in Essen, when his father, returning from Berlin on a business trip, had dropped in to a wine bar managed by two sisters, one of whom soon became Kingsley's mother.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Gershon Kingsley timeline

  1. Kingsley is most famous for his 1969 influential electronic instrumental composition "Popcorn", and his composition of the WGBH-TV Soundmark.
  2. On January 30, 1970, the group became the first to ever play electronic music in Carnegie Hall.

The world when Gershon Kingsley was born

Gershon Kingsley was born in 1922. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1922

  • #1 song"Chicago" – Fred Fisher
  • Top movieNosferatu
  • Best-selling bookUlysses – James Joyce

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGene Sarazen wins the U.S. Open at age 20
  • Top headlineMussolini marches on Rome and seizes power in Italy
  • Technology milestoneBBC begins radio broadcasts
  • Defining fadCrossword puzzles
  • Notable inventionWater skiing invented in Minnesota
  • World population1.90 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population110.0M

1922 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Gershon Kingsley's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19222026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,270$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population110.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.