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Freddy Bienstock

Published Tuesday 27 October 2009 at 13:25 by Michael Quinn

Freddy Bienstock began his career in the music industry as a stockroom clerk and ended it as the founder and chairman of one of the most powerful independent music publishing companies, Carlin.

His breakthrough came when he moved from plugging songs to selecting them for Elvis Presley with Hill and Range, then the leading publisher of country music. By 1966 Bienstock was in a position to buy the company’s British subsidiary, Belinda Music, renaming it the same year as Carlin Music.

A sustained programme of acquisitions turned Carlin into a major player so that by the 1980s it had acquired the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate, the Edward B Marks classical music catalogue and competitor company Chappell Music.

In 1994, he formed Carlin America. Its 100,000-title portfolio embraced Broadway theatre (including the scores to Cabaret, Company and Follies), classical, pop and country music genres.

Born on 24 April 1923 to Jewish parents in Switzerland, Bienstock fled the Nazis to America in 1938. He died, aged 86, on 20 September and is survived by his wife, daughter Caroline, after whom his company is named and who is currently its chief operating officer, and son Robert, a senior vice president with Carlin America.

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