Boris Midney

Boris Midney (born October 22, 1937) is a Soviet-born American musician, producer, composer and conductor. Biography Midney was born in Moscow to a conductor and pianist father and classical singer mother. He studied classical composition and clarinet also teaching himself to play saxophone. In 1964 he defected from the USSR via the US embassy in Japan. After arriving in New York City, he formed The Russian Jazz Quartet with whom he recorded an album for Impulse Records. In the 1960s, Midney married Tania Armour from the Armour & Company family. Later, Midney became a prolific composer and producer of disco music although he rarely was credited under his own name. Using guises such as USA-European Connection, Masquerade, Double Discovery, Caress, Companion and Festival, Midney produced a large body of disco music. He is recognised as being among the first producers to take full advantage of 48-track recording and one of the creators of the Eurodisco genre. Among his productions were disco adaptations of the Broadway musical Evita and of the score for The Empire Strikes Back. Describing his disco music, critics Alan Jones and Jussi Kantonen wrote: On the Mount Olympus of disco there