George Winston, a Titan of Soothing Piano Instrumental Music, Dies at 73

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic George Winston, one of the bestselling instrumental pianists in the world during his heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, died Sunday at age 73.

The announcement came through his social media and website and said he “painlessly left this world while asleep” following a decade-long battle with cancer. “George courageously managed serious cancers, including having a successful bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in 2013 at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, that gratefully extended his life by 10 years,” said the announcement. “Throughout his cancer treatments, George continued to write and record new music, and he stayed true to his greatest passion: performing for live audiences while raising funds for Feeding America to help fight the national hunger crisis along with donating proceeds from each of his concerts to local food banks.” Winston started his career performing what he called “folk piano,” although in later years it was sometimes categorized as part of the New Age genre at the peak of that instrumental movement, or even filed under classical, although he eschewed any of those labels.

He recorded his first solo piano album, “Ballads and Blues,” in 1972 for the Folkways label, but didn’t become a household name until releasing the seasonally themed “Autumn” and “December” in 1980 and 1982, respectively.

He went on to sell more than 15 million albums, according to reps. Winston won a Grammy for “Forest” and was nominated five other times.