Charles Koppelman, a longtime music executive who worked with Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Tracy Chapman, Wilson Phillips and Vanilla Ice, among many other artists, and later steered the companies of Martha Stewart and the fashion designer Steve Madden through periods of turbulence, died Nov. 25 at his home in Roslyn Harbor, NY. He was 82.

For decades, Mr. Koppelman was a player in the upper ranks of the music industry, acting variously as dealmaker and superstar matchmaker. Seldom pictured without a Cuban cigar and a jovial grin, he relished the excitement of striking big deals and the lifestyle that went along with being a top executive in music’s high-flying 1980s and ‘90s.