Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist. He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine. Yeston also wrote a significant amount of the music and most of the lyrics to the Tony-nominated musical Grand Hotel in 1989, which was nominated for best score. His musical version of the novel The Phantom of the Opera called Phantom has enjoyed numerous productions in the U.S. and around the world. He has also written a number of other Off-Broadway musicals, including Death Takes a Holiday; a song cycle entitled December Songs; a choral symphony; a ballet; a Cello Concerto; and other pieces. Yeston serves on the Board of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also President of the Kleban Foundation, serves on the editorial boards of Musical Quarterly and the Kurt Weill Foundation Publication Project and on the advisory board of the Yale University Press Broadway Series. He was the Director of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in New York City for two decades beginning in 1982. 

October 23rd, 1945 in Jersey City (Age 79)