Maurice Edwards

Maurice Edwards died of COVID-19 at age 97 in Englewood, N.J., on September 23, 2020. A man of many talents and passions, Maurice was a musician, singer, actor, theater and opera director, cantor, vocal coach, author, translator, and for many years the executive director and, later, artistic director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born Maurice Levine in Michigan in 1922, he grew up in Madison, Wis., and served in the U.S. Army during World War II; he was awarded the Bronze Star for his valor in rescuing members of his unit caught in a German sniper ambush. Following the liberation of France, he studied at the Sorbonne and had the great pleasure of meeting Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris—a memory he treasured. Moving to New York after the war, he earned a B.A. from NYU and an M.A. in comparative literature from Columbia University. He began acting in the late 1940s and in the 1960s helped found a notable experimental theater company, the Cubiculo, in Hell’s Kitchen.

His many performance credits include roles in the original Broadway productions of Fiddler on the Roof and The Golden Apple and the acclaimed mid-1950s Theatre de Lys production of The Threepenny Opera as well as scores of other off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions. Among the numerous musical and theatrical events he produced and/or directed was Marianne Faithfull’s performance of Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1995. Maurice’s books include How Music Grew in Brooklyn: A Biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra (2006) and Christian Dietrich Grabbe: His Life and His Works (2016), about the 19th-century German playwright.

Maurice is survived his nephew, Allen Markson, of Columbia, Md. and grandnephew, Joseph Markson, of San Francisco, Calif. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Ann, and by his son Jacob. His second wife, the Romanian poet and composer Nina Cassian, died in 2014; Maurice’s 2011 memoir, Revelatory Letters to Nina Cassian, was inspired by her, and he recently appeared in Dana Bunescu and Mona Nicoara’s documentary film about her, The Distance Between Me and Me. All who knew Maurice will remember his immense erudition, indefatigable energy, and boundless good humor. His remains will be interred in a family plot in Madison. A memorial service is not yet planned due to the pandemic.

Donations in his memory may be made to The Actors Fund at https://actorsfund.org/services-and-programs.

Photo by Mona Nicora