Obituaries : Charles Ross Perlee; Conductor and Pianist

Charles Ross Perlee, 62, a conductor and pianist who specialized in opera. Born in Altadena and educated at UC Santa Barbara, Perlee conducted more than 400 performances of operas, ballets and musicals throughout the U.S. and Western Europe. He worked as staff conductor of both the Bremen Opera in Germany and the San Francisco Opera, and translated “The Music Man” into German for its German-language premiere in 1975. Locally, Perlee staged and conducted opera performances at the Redlands Bowl Summer Festival. In 1983, he joined Orange County Opera, an educational company that performs in public and private schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties. At the time of his death, he was the company’s musical director and translator. He also played as accompanist in more than 3,000 performances. On Oct. 9 in Pasadena of cancer.