She died in May at the age of ninety-eight.

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Jerry Bock in 2006

STEVE EMBER: Jerry Bock was a celebrated composer who wrote music for many popular Broadway shows. He worked with the songwriter Sheldon Harnick to create seven musicals. These include “Fiorello” and “She Loves Me.” But their most famous musical was “Fiddler on the Roof.” It first played on Broadway in nineteen sixty-three.

The play tells about Jewish life in a small Russian village during the early nineteen hundreds. The main characters are a milkman named Tevye, his wife and five daughters. Jerry Bock was influenced by the Jewish musical traditions he heard as a child.

“Fiddler on the Roof” became a huge success. It won nine Tony Awards. The show played for eight years, making it Broadway’s longest-running musical at the time. It was also made into a popular movie.

Jerry Bock was born in nineteen twenty-eight and grew up in New York City. At a young age he was able to play complex music on the piano. In high school he wrote his first musical. He wrote his first musical play for Broadway in nineteen fifty-six.

Later in his career, Jerry Bock wrote music for television programs for children. He died in November at the age of eighty-one. We leave you with one of the most popular songs from “Fiddler on the Roof --“If I Were a Rich Man.”

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FAITH LAPIDUS: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com I’m Faith Lapidus.