Source: KHTS Hometown Station
Date: 02/12/2026 8:00am

Article Summary:
**Today in SCV History (Feb. 12, 1923): CalArts Founding Dean and Pulitzer Prize Winner Mel Powell Born**
Mel Powell, born February 12, 1923, in New York City, became a celebrated composer, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the founding dean of the music school at the California Institute of the Arts. A former jazz pianist who worked in Hollywood and served in Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band, Powell later shifted to composing and academia after developing muscular dystrophy, ultimately leading CalArts’ music program and earning the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for his concerto “Duplicates.” He died in 1998 at age 75.

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