Irwin Rabinowitz
November 10, 1929 – May 4, 2010
From NAMM.org: Irwin Rabinowitz was personally hired by Irving Berlin to create the lead plates for the famed songwriter’s sheet music. Irwin’s craft was hand-chiseling each note, slur, and coda into metal plates that would then allow copies to be published. Although Mr. Rabinowitz’s career would extend into the music typewriter and even the computer, he always preferred the old way of hand craftsmanship engraving. Irwin worked for a time for the Elvis Presley Music Group and several other publishers before his retirement. For many years he and his wife traveled to Israel to volunteer at area hospitals. He was on such a trip when he passed away in May 2010.
A tribute segment from his NAMM Oral History interview has been posted on NAMM’s website
Thanks to NAMM Historian, Dan Del Fiorentino