Today's Birthdays & Events, February 24th

Feb 24th:

1679 Domenico Natale Sarro
1704 Hubert Renotte
1717 Bernhard Hupfeld
1766 Samuel Wesley, composer/organist
1771 Johann Baptist Cramer, pianist/composer/publisher
1797 Samuel Lover
1842 Arrigio Enrico Boito (best known for his opera ''Mefistofele'' and as librettist of Verdi's ''Otello'' and ''Falstaff.''
1846 Luigi Denza
1876 Jean Poveigh
1877 Rudolf Ganz
1890 Antonio Massana
1905 Guillaume Landre
1911 Konrad Lechner
1912 Julius Kowalski
1921 Ingvar Lidholm
1923 David Soyer, cellist
1932 Michel Legrand
1934 Renata Scotto, soprano and opera director
1934 Shuko Mizuno
1947 Lonnie Turner, bassist/vocalist (Steve Miller Band)
1947 Rupert Holmes, musician/playwright
1962 Michelle Shocked, singer/musician

Events:

1607 Claudio Monteverdi's opera "Orfeo" premieres in Mantua
1711 Handel's opera "Rinaldo" premieres at Haymarket theatre in London
1939 Roy Harris's Symphony No. 3 premieres in Boston

Birthdays & Events for February 22nd & 23rd

Feb 22nd:

1542 Santino Garsi
1573 Gemignano Capilupi
1745 Joao de Sousa Carvalho
1749 Johann Nikolaus Forkel, musicologist (first biographer of J.S. Bach)
1761 Erik Eriksson Tulindberg
1761 Jacob Kimball
1764 Alexander Campbell
1770 Jan Matyas Nepomuk August Vitasek
1772 Joseph Lipavsky
1772 Karl Jacob Wagner
1779 Joachim Nicolas Eggert
1810 Holger Simon Paulli
1814 Henryk Oskar Kolberg
1817 Niels Wilhelm Gade (Gade is considered the greatest Danish composer of his time. He was initially a violinist and also a conductor)
1819 Bernardo Calvo Puig
1833 Josef Foerster
1834 Albert Heinrich Zabel
1836 Eduard Wachmann
1842 Carl Rosa, founder (Rosa opera company)
1844 Kazamierz Julian Kratzer
1883 Jaroslav Kocian
1891 Lucien Cailliet
1894 Alexander Spitzmuller-Harmersbach
1896 Nacio Herb Brown
1900 Evald Aav,
1903 Robert Weede, baritone
1906 Edmund von Borck
1919 Jiri Pauer
1922 Andre Asriel
1922 Felix Werder
1927 David Ahlstrom
1929 Marni Nixon, soprano (Marni Nixon has been the featured soloist on several Hovhaness discs from Crystal Records)
1934 Thomas Paul, bass
1937 Dubravko Detoni

Events:

1892 "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde premieres at St James Theatre, London
1941 Paul Creston's Symphony No. 1 premieres


Feb 23rd:

1633 Samuel Pepys, navy expert/composer
1649 John Blow (Blow happened to be the first English composer to write an opera ("Venus & Adonis")
1685 George Frideric Handel (never heard of 'em!)
1730 Christian Joseph Lidarti
1811 George Washington Hewitt
1848 Thomas Paine Westendorf
1873 Dmitri Arakishvili
1876 Wadi' Sabra
1880 Edgar Istel
1882 Ladislav Vycpalek
1886 Albert Edward Sammons,
1887 Oskar Frederik Lindberg
1900 Elinor Remick Warren
1905 Leonidas Zoras
1916 Martindale Sidwell, organist/conductor
1920 Hall Overton
1924 Lejaren Hiller
1926 Regine Crespin, vocalist
1927 Ivan Hrusovsky
1929 Richard Moryl,
1952 Brad Whitford, guitarist (Aerosmith)
1955 Howard Jones, rock pianist/vocalist
1962 Michael Wilton, rock guitarist (Queensrÿche)
1967 Chris Vrenna, musician, producer, sound engineer (Nine Inch Nails drummer, fd. Tweaker)
1975 Robert Lopez

Events:

1792 Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G premieres
1886 Tchaikovsky's  "Manfred" symphony premieres

Birthdays & Events for February 20th & 21st

Feb 20th:

1734 Franz Ignaz Beck
1745 Johann Peter Salomon
1752 Charles Broche
1763 Adalbert Gyrowetz
1770 Ferdinando Carulli
1791 Carl Czerny
1802 Charles-Auguste de Beriot
1803 Friedrich Theodor Frohlich
1816 Josef Michal Ksawery Jan Poniatowski
1854 Louis F M van Westerhoven, actor/singer/opera director
1874 Mary Garden, Aberdeen Scotland, opera star
1876 Fyodor Akimenko
1887 David McKinley Williams
1889 Levko Mykolayevich Revutsky
1899 Leon Woizikowski, Ballets Russes
1900 Antonio Veretti
1903 Karel Janacek
1904 Armin Loos
1907 Nadine Conner, soprano
1911 Robert Guyn McBride
1913 Jozef Kresanek
1916 Julius Juzeliunas
1920 Armin Schibler
1921 Ruth Gipps, composer/conductor
1929 Toshiro Mayuzumi
1940 Barbara Laine Ellis, singer
1940 Christoph Eschenbach, pianist/conductor
1944 Lew Soloff, jazz trumpeter
1948 Barry Wordsworth, conductor
1953 Riccardo Chailly, conductor
1953 Poison Ivy, musician (The Cramps)
1960 Kee Marcello, rocker (Europe)
1962 Joel Ellis, rocker
1963 Ian Brown, rock vocalist (Stone Roses)
1967 Kurt Cobain, rock vocalist (Nirvana) **One of the most tragic losses in rock music of all time

Events:

1724 George Frederick Handel's opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" premieres in London
1816 Rossini's opera "Barber of Seville" premieres in Rome
1917 Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse's musical "Oh, Boy!" premieres in NYC
1934 Virgil Thomson's opera "4 Saints in 3 Acts" opens in NYC
1960 Jimi Hendrix plays his first gig.

Feb 21st:

1556 Sethus Calvisius
1674 Johann Augustin Kobelius
1690 Christoph Stoltzenberg
1776 Vincenzo Lavigna
1795 Francisco Manuel da Silva
1801 Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda
1814 Nicolo Gabrielli
1831 Eduard Rappoldi, composer
1836 Clement-Philibert-Leo Delibes
1836 Emil Hartmann
1844 Charles-Marie Widor
1861 Pierre Breville
1867 Otto Hermann Kahn, Banker, organized Metropolitan Opera Co.
1878 Fritz Cortolezis,
1893 Andres Segovia, classical guitarist
1898 Vassily Vainonen, ballet dancer/choreographer
1903 Eric Fogg
1904 Armand Preud'homme, organist/poet
1909 George G F van Renesse, pianist/music director
1912 Nikita Magaloff, pianist
1922 Uros Krek
1923 Zvi Zeitlin, violinist/professor (Eastman School)
1927 Pierre Mercure
1933 Nina Simone, vocalist/pianist
1949 Jerry Harrison, rock keyboardist (Talking Heads)
1958 Mary-Chapin Carpenter, vocalist

Events:

1927 Franz Lehr's opera "Der Zarewitsch" premieres
1991 Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC for 780 performances

Birthdays & Events February 16th - February 19th

Feb 16th:

1684 Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, monk/composer
1709 Charles Avison
1774 Pierre Rode
1790 Chretien Urhan
1813 Semyon Stepanovich Gulak-Artemovsky
1826 Franz von Holstein
1836 Benjamin Edward Woolf
1847 Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka
1854 Oscar Fetras
1856 Willem Kes, violinist/composer/conductor
1866 Johann Strauss
1874 Marie Gutheil-Schoder, soprano
1878 Selim Palmgren, pianist/composer/conductor 
1890 Semyon Semyonovich Bogatiryov
1896 Alexander Brailowsky, pianist
1905 José Muñoz Molleda, composer/journalist/jurist/politician
1907 Fernando Previtali
1910 Miguel Bernal Jiminez
1912 Machito "Frank Grillo", bandleader (salsa)
1916 Bill Doggett, jazz and blues musician
1916 William Ballard Doggett, jazz musician
1922 Geraint Evans, opera vocalist
1932 Otis Blackwell, composer/singer
1935 Sonny Bono
1938 John Corigliano
1942 Gabriel Brncic
1943 Anthony Dowell, ballet dancer (Royal Ballet)
1955 Jeff Clayton, jazz saxophonist/composer
1961 Andy Taylor, guitarist (Duran Duran)

Events:

1854 Franz Liszt's symphony "Orpheus" premieres
1892 Opera "Werther" premieres in Vienna
1947 Premiere of Morton Gould's Symphony No. 3
1962 Premiere of Darius Milhaud's Symphony No. 12 


Feb 17th:

1444 Rudolf Agricola, Dutch humanist/organist
1653 Arcangelo Corelli
1667 Georg Bronner
1675 Johann Melchior Conradi
1696 Ernst Gottlieb Baron, composer
1697 Louis-Maurice de La Pierre
1747 Narciso Casanovas
1754 Jan Jachym Kopriva
1796 Giovanni Pacini
1816 Friedrich Wilhelm Markull
1820 Henri Vieuxtemps
1821 Lola Montez, dancer
1831 Francisco Salvador Daniel,
1850 Anton Urspruch
1850 Ludwig Bonvin
1858 Ernest Ford
1862 Edward German
1882 Kurt Schindler
1887 Leevi Antti Madetoja
1902 Marian Anderson, contralto
1906 Ramon Tapales
1907 Alec Wilder
1909 Marjorie Lawrence, soprano
1913 Oskar Danon
1913 Rene Leibowitz
1915 Homer Keller
1920 Paul Fetler
1925 Ron Goodwin, composer/conductor
1926 Friedrich Cerha
1926 Lee Hoiby
1930 Usko Merilainen
1941 Gene Pitney, vocalist/songwriter
1944 Karl Jenkins
1949 Fred Frith, guitarist/violinist/bassist
1957 Loreena McKennitt, vocalist/musician/songwriter
1967 Chanté Moore, American singer
1971 Martyn Bennett

Events:

1859 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli
1904 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" premieres in Milan
1916 Romberg/Hanley/Atteridge/Smith's musical premieres in NYC
1932 Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music" premieres in NYC


Feb 18th:

1632 Giovanni Battista Vitali
1716 Gaspard Fritz
1751 Karl Haack
1770 Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck
1771 Friedrich Christian Ruppe, composer and violinist
1776 John Parry
1819 Joseph Philbrick Webster
1841 Samuel Prowse Warren
1850 George Henschel
1880 Eric De Lamarter
1902 Walter Herbert, conductor and impresario
1915 Marcel Landowsky
1926 Harry "Little" Caesar, blues singer/actor
1927 Tabe Bas, actor/opera vocalist (Leiser Wolf in Anatevka)
1929 André Mathieu
1931 Dieter Schonbach
1933 Elisabeth S Belder-Ameling, soprano
1933 Yoko Ono
1934 (Clyde) Skip Battin, rocker (Byrds)
1934 Aldo Ceccato, conductor
1939 Marlos Nobre
1939 Marek Janowski, conductor
1952 Juice Newton, vocalist
1953 Robin Bachman, guitarist
1964 Paul Hanley, musician (The Fall, Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
1965 Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young), American rapper and record producer
1980 Regina Spektor, Russian-born singer and songwriter

Events:

1735 First opera performed in America, "Flora", in Charleston, SC
1902 The opera "Hunchback of Notre Dame" premieres in Monte Carlo
1947 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC
1968 David Gilmour joins rock group Pink Floyd


Feb 19th:

1616 Jacques de Saint-Luc
1671 Charles-Hubert Gervais
1687 Johann Adam Birkenstock
1743 Luigi Boccherini
1762 Friedrich Franz Hurka
1812 Lauro Rossi
1841 Felipe Pedrell
1843 Adelina Patti, soprano
1863 Emanuel Moor
1877 Louis Francois-Marie Aubert
1880 Arthur Shepherd
1881 Armin Knab
1886 George Luther Foote
1906 Grace Mary Williams
1906 Hendrik W C Spruit, conductor
1911 Nikola Hercigonja
1912 Saul Chapli
1913 Alvin Derold Etler
1921 Claude Rene Georges Pascal
1922 Josef Matej
1923 Donald Lybbert
1925 Jindrich Feld
1926 Gyorgy Kurtag
1932 Jean-Pierre Ponnele, opera director
1941 Carlos Roque Alsina
1948 Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
1954 Frances Bucholz, rocker (Scorpions)
1971 Gil Shaham, violinist

Events:

1736 George Frideric Handel's "Alexander's Feast" premieres
1914 Riccardo Zandonai's opera "Francesco da Rimini" premieres in Turin
1923 Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 6 (my personal favorite!) premieres

Birthdays & Events for February 15th

Feb 15th:

1557 Alfonso Fontanelli
1571 Michael Praetorius (best known for his delightful "Terpsichore",  a series of over 300 instrumental dances)
1740 Ernst Eichner (Neglected German composer. Wrote over 30 symphonies and 20 concertos)
1760 Jean-Francois Le Sueur
1783 Johann Nepomuk Poissl
1789 Friedrich Fesca
1807 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski
1822 Theodor Uhlig
1847 Robert Fuchs (a late romantic, Fuchs penned appealing and tuneful music. He was also an important teacher, and (some of) his students included Gustav Mahler, Erich Korngold, Hugo Wolf, Jean Sibelius, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schmidt, Franz Schreker, and even Erkki Melartin!
1855 Gustav Hollaender
1874 Emilis Melngailis
1885 Richard Wurz
1893 Walter Donaldson, pianist/composer (Girl Crazy, Whoopee)
1899 Georges Auric (French composer, member of "Les Six")
1905 Harold Arlen (Over the Rainbow..)
1907 Jean Langlais (French composer best known for his imo superb organ and choral music)
1920 Ingmar Milveden
1927 Gottfrid Grasbeck
1937 Zoltan Pesko
1947 John Adams (needs no introduction!)
1949 Christopher Rouse (no intro needed here either, another American composer)
1949 Hans Graf, conductor

Events:

1686 Jean Baptiste Lully's opera "Armide" premieres in Paris
1941 Duke Ellington records "Take the A Train"

Birthdays & Events for February 14th

Feb 14th:

1513 Domenico Maria Ferrabosco
1572 Hans Christoph Haiden
1602 Pier Francesco Cavalli
1670 Georg Gabriel Schutz
1679 Georg Friedrich Kauffman
1813 Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky
1858 Charles Beach Hawley
1880 Aida Overton Walker, dancer
1880 Edgar Leslie Bainton
1882 Ignaz Friedman,
1892 Nikolaj A Orloff, pianist
1897 Jorgen Bentzon
1902 Valentin Ruiz Azner
1915 Irving Gordon, songwriter
1916 Wawrzyniec Jerzy Zulawski
1921 Jeanne Demessieux
1924 Arghyris Kounadis
1925 Elliot Lawrence, orchestra leader
1933 Andrey Mikhaylovich Volkonsky
1933 Bertram Jay Turetzky
1934 Michel Corboz, conductor
1939 Chris Pyne, trombonist
1943 Maceo Parker, tenor saxophonist
1945 Vic Briggs, rocker (Animals)
1953 Wayne Siegel
1957 Soile Isokoski, soprano
1959 Renée Fleming, soprano

Events:

1918 H Atteridge & S Rombergs musical "Sinbad" premieres in NYC

Birthdays & Events for February 13th

I probably won't be posting any music during the weekend. My heating in my apt isn't working and meanwhile it's the coldest weekend all winter (in fact tomorrow is going to be a record-breaker, trumping a winter day in 1906 when it was -2 degrees F). So, staying with the parents for the time being.

Feb 13th

1660 Johann Sigismund Kusser
1713 Domingo Miguel Bernaube Terradellas
1721 John Reid
1755 Francois Alexander Sallantin
1778 Fernando Sor (especially delightful guitar works)
1787 James P Carrell
1820 Bela Albrecht Pal Keler
1837 Valentin de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea
1840 Georg Jacobi
1862 Karel Weis
1870 Leopold Godowsky
1877 Jazeps Medins
1883 Bainbridge Crist
1908 Gerald Strang
1914 George Kleinsinger (Tubby the Tuba!)
1920 Eileen Farrell, soprano
1923 Yfrah Neaman, violinist
1926 Barney Childs
1950 Peter Gabriel
1956 Peter Hook (New Order)
1960 Michael Craig, rock bassist (Culture Club-Do You Want to Hurt Me)
1961 Henry Rollins, vocalist/poet/punk/hardcore legend (Black Flag, Rollins Band..)
1961 Les Warner, (Cult)

Events:

1914 American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) forms in NYC

Birthdays & Events for February 11th and 12th

Feb 11th

1567 Thomas Campion, composer/poet/physician
1740 Matej Sojka
1751 Joseph Waast Aubert Nonot
1752 Josef Reicha
1753 Lambert-Francois Godecharle
1758 Christian Ignatius Latrobe,
1760 Jan Ladislav Dussek
1778 Franz Joseph Volkert
1853 Bertram Luard-Selby
1885 Licinio Refice
1886 Gustaf Lazarus Nordqvist
1886 Michel Brusselmans
1891 Maurice Yvain
1898 LeRoy Harris (When Johnny comes Marching Home etc..)
1899 Albert Huybrechts
1914 Gordon Tex Beneke, saxophonist/bandleader/vocalist (Glenn Miller Orchestra)
1916 Karl Hubert Rudolf Schiske
1917 Thomas K Scherman, conductor
1923 Mel Powell
1929 Agustin Gonzalez Acilu
1936 Arnost Parsch
1955 Bill Laswell, American bassist and record producer
1967 Chitravina N. Ravikiran

Events:

1840 Gaetano Donizetti's Opera "La Fille du Regiment" premieres in Paris
1843 Opera "I Lombardi" premieres in Milan
1903 Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony premieres in Vienna
1916 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert
1922 "April Showers" by Al Jolson hits #1

Feb 12th:

1755 Albert Christoph Dies
1790 Ignaz Assmayer
1810 Loisa Puget,
1819 Samuel Parkman Tuckerman
1830 Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf
1830 Peter Arnold Heise
1874 Fritz Bennicke Hart
1875 Sara Wennerberg-Reuter
1879 Jean Gilbert
1882 Gheorghe Cucu
1883 Paul August von Klenau
1889 Vladimir Mikhaylovich Deshevov
1894 Alfonso Leng
1895 Viktor Nikolayevich Trambitsky
1897 Yves de La Casiniere
1903 Hans Redlich
1912 Rudolf Firkusny, pianist
1913 Lucio Diestro San Pedro
1914 Menelaos Pallantios
1922 Tudor Jarda
1926 Alexander Gibson, conductor
1929 Leonard Gregory Kastle
1930 C H Dearnley, organist
1932 Jerome Lowenthal, Phila, pianist/professor
1934 Francesco Pennisi
1935 Bent Lorentzen
1937 Lodewijk Boer, violinist/playwright
1938 Willy Correa de Oliveira
1954 Noriyuki Asakura
1956 H.R. (Paul D. Hudson, vocalist of the seminal punk/hardore band Bad Brains) 
1956 Didier Lockwood, violinist

Events:

1889 Caesar Franck's Symphony in D premieres
1906 George Cohan's musical "George Washington" premieres in NYC
1978 "Jesus Christ Superstar" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 96 performances

If you click on the photo you can enlarge it and read the rest of the text.

Birthdays & Events February 8th - February 10th

Feb 8th

1586 Jacob Praetorius
1708 Vaclav Jan Kopriva
1741 Andre-Ernest-Modeste Gretry
1764 Joseph Leopold von Eybler
1789 Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer
1810 Norbert Burgmuller
1828 Antonio Cagnoni
1888 Matthijs Vermeulen
1891 Edgar Palm, pianist/composer
1900 Guy Douglas Hamilton Warrack
1904 Igor' Fyodorovich Belza
1906 Artur Balsam, pianist
1908 Grigor Eghiazaryan
1912 Simon Jurovsky
1914 Jules van Ackere, Flemish musicologist
1925 Alvin Brehm
1927 Zdenek Zouhar
1930 Manuel Castillo
1932 John Towner Williams, composer/conductor
1933 Elly Ameling, soprano
1940 Talib Rasul Hakim
1943 Jose de Almeida Prado

Events:

1735 First opera (ballad-opera) in North American colonies, "Flora" opens in Charleston SC
1862 Julius Benedict's opera "Lily of Killarney" premieres in London
1895 Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" premieres in St Petersburg
1946 Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 premieres in Philadelphia


Feb 9th -Most notable for today is Alban Berg!

1607 Abraham Megerle
1741 Henri-Joseph Rigel
1744 Amos Bull
1756 Karel Blazej Kopriva
1771 Daniel Belknap
1780 Walenty Karol Kratzer
1808 Francesco Gomez da Rocha
1834 Franz Xaver Witt
1867 Edward Naylor
1875 Sidney Hugo Nicholson
1879 Carl Natanael Berg
1885 Alban Berg
1903 Georg Trexler
1906 Gwen Catley, soprano
1909 Harald Genzmer (one of my favorite extremely  neglected composers, Genzmer was born in Bremen, Germany and studied with Hindemith)
1914 Ralph Herman, orchestra leader
1924 George Guest, organist
1929 James Mulcro Drew,
1929 Willem Kersters
1930 Emil Petrovics
1931 Xavier Benguerel
1942 Carole King, singer-songwriter
1942 Charlie Morrow
1942 Milos Stedron
1943 Ryland Davies, tenor

1966 Amanda Roocroft, opera singer

Events:

1893 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Falstaff" premieres in Milan


Feb 10th

1696 Johann Melchior Molter
1702 Jean-Pierre Guignon
1717 Pierre de La Garde
1735 Johann Christoph Kuhnau
1741 Franz Adam Veichtner
1750 Stanislao Mattei
1788 Johann Peter Pixis
1819 Richard Storrs Willis
1841 Walter Parratt
1866 Bror Beckman
1869 Vasily Pavovlich Kalafati
1879 Franz Carl Bornschein
1903 Matvey Isaakovich Blanter
1905 Vilko Ukmar
1908 Jean Coulthard
1921 Adrian Cruft
1923 Cesare Siepi, basso 

1927 Leontyne (Mary Violet) Price, soprano

1929 Jerry Goldsmith, pianist/film composer

1930 Peter Phillips

1931 Gerhard Rosenfeld

1931 Makoto Shinohara

1935 Salvator Pueyo

1935 Theodore Antoniou

1939 Barbara Kolb

1948 Conrad Cummings

1953 Carl Joseph Stone

1962 Cliff Burton, bass guitarist (Metallica) (d. 1986)

Events:

1794 Joseph Haydn's 99th Symphony premieres

1878 Peter Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 premieres

1881 Jacques Offenbach's opera "Les Contes d'Hoffman" premieres in Paris

1882 Rimski-Korsakov's opera "Snyegurochka" premieres in St. Petersburg

1934 Howard Hanson's "Merry Mount" premieres in NYC (The "Suite from Merry Mount" is a delight, but so too is the rarely heard opera itself..if anyone is interested I shall post it)

1961 Walter Piston's Symphony No. 7 premieres

Birthdays & Events for February 7th

1707 Carl August Thielo
1710 William Boyce
1739 Joseph Pouteau
1758 Benedikt Emanuel Schack
1822 Joaquin y Garbayo Gaztambide
1823 Richard Genee
1825 Crystobal Oudrid y Segura
1847 Ernst Franck, composer/conductor
1863 Mieczyslaw Soltys
1864 Ricardo Castro Herrera
1871 Karl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammer ("Excelsior!" ..it's fun to exclaim..and it's a lovely overture)
1875 Erkki Gustav Melartin (his symphonies (six) are must-haves!)
1875 Walter Courvoisier
1877 Feliks Nowowiejski
1878 Ossip Gabrilovich
1887 Eubie Blake, US ragtime composer/pianist 
1891 Joachim Stutschewsky
1897 Quincy Porter (still neglected American composer, his string quartets are especially fine)
1925 Marius Constant, composer/conductor
1927 John Buller
1938 Robert Frank Baksa (American composer, seriously neglected. His music for winds is lovely)
1954 Dieter Bohlen


Events:

1792 Domenic Cimarosa's opera "Il Matrimonio Segreto" premieres in Vienna
1931 American composer Deems Taylor's opera "Peter Ibbetson" premieres at Met Opera, NYC
1964 Roger Sessions's Symphony No. 5 premieres

Birthdays & Events for February 6th

A smaller list for today.

1673 Maximilian Dietrich Freisslich
1695 Andre Cheron
1705 Johann Matthias Leffloth
1793 Pietro Rovelli
1802 Charles Wheatstone, English physicist/musician/inventor (creator of the English concertina)
1807 Hans Matthison-Hansen
1834 Ema Puksec, Croatian singer (d. 1889)
1848 Luigi Mancinelli
1878 Waclaw Gieburowski
1881 Karl Weigl
1900 Roy Smeck, guitarist/banjoist (take a look/listen on youtube)
1904 Claudio Arrau, pianist
1909 Israel Citkowitz
1917 Arthur Gold, pianist
1917 Liberato Firmino Sifonia
1923 Maurice Le Roux
1938 Ellsworth Milburn
1941 Stephen Albert
1945 Bob (Robert Nesta) Marley, reggae musician/legend!/singer-songwriter 
1962 Axl Rose, (William Bailey) vocalist, Guns & Roses
1968 Akira Yamaoka

Events:

1851 Robert Schumann's 3rd Symphony "Rhenish" premieres in Dusseldorf
1854 Robert Schumann is saved from suicide attempt into the Rhine

Birthdays & Events for February 5th

Birthdays:

1662 Giuseppi Vignola
1711 Joseph Umstatt
1732 Nathanael Gottfried Gruner
1748 Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer/conductor/tutor of Beethoven
1810 Ole Bull, violinist
1862 Felipe Villanueva y Gutierrez
1863 Armand Parent
1864 Carl Teike
1865 Harvey Worthington Loomis
1866 Rossetter Gleason Cole
1868 Lodewijk Mortelmans
1882 Felice Lattuada
1889 Ioan Dumitru Chirescu
1902 Bronislaw Kaper
1903 Ivan Galamian, violinist
1909 Grazyna Bacewicz
1912 Zoltan Pongracz
1918 Kara Abulfazogli Karayev
1921 John M Pritchard, conductor
1943 Ivan Alexandrovich Tcherepnin
1951 Elizabeth Swados, composer/playwright
1960 Aris Christofellis, Greek countertenor
1968 Nir Kabaretti, Israeli conductor

Events:

1887 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy
1907 Arnold Schoenberg's 1st string quartet premieres in Vienna

1911 Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam

Birthdays & Events for February 4th

Please let me know if this blue font is better for everyone. It is definitely softer, and I personally prefer it to regular white on black.


1549 Eustache du Caurroy
1581 Daniel Selich
1677 Johann Ludwig Bach,
1751 Blas de Laserna
1758 Pierre-Gabriel Gardel, French ballet dancer/choreographer
1767 Johann Franz Volkert
1805 Georg Andreas Henkel
1875 Raymond Moulaert
1876 Victor Jean Leonard Vreuls
1893 Bernard Rogers
1903 Siro Cisilino
1904 Predrag Milosevic
1910 Alfred Mendelsohn
1912 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor
1916 David Vassall Cox
1922 Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Indian Classical Singer
1934 Jouko Sakari Linjama

1953 Kitaro

1957 Don Davis

1960 Jonathan Larson

Events:

1938 "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway

Birthdays and Events for January 30th - February 3rd

Hello all. It's catching up time as is all too familiar around here these days..


The ((major)) birthday for the 30th is Thomas Tallis, one of the most sublime composers of all. Also notable is one of my favorite early American composers, the highly original Charles M. Loeffler.


Jan 30th:

1505 Thomas Tallis
1563 Franciscus Gomarus, (Francois Gomaer), Dutch theologist/opera singer
1647 Konrad Hoffler
1694 Joseph Joachim Benedict Munster
1697 Johann Joachim Quantz, German royal flautist/composer
1710 Vigilio Blasio Faitello
1724 Ignaz Franz Xaver Kurzinger
1752 Joseph Matthias Kracher
1756 Josef Preindl
1760 Franz Xaver Partsch
1789 George Augustus Kollmann
1861 Charles Martin Tornow Loeffler
1862 Walter Johannes Damrosch
1892 Charles Trowbridge Haubiel
1900 Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky
1909 Mihaly Hajou
1911 Roy Eldridge, Pitts, Pennsylvania, American jazz trumpeter (Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw)
1915 Pierre Wissmer
1919 Robert Suter
1920 George Skibine, Russ/US dancer/choreographer
1921 Bernie Leighton, orchestra leader
1922 Pal Jardanyi
1926 Lizbeth Webb, soprano
1928 Mitch Leigh
1933 Richard Dufallo, clarinetist/conductor
1940 David Johnson
1944 Lynn Harrell, cellist
1945 Robert Wittinger
1947 Martin Christoph Redel

Events:

1858 Charles Halle founds Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England
1952 Paul Creston's 4th Symphony, premieres
1959 Paul Hindemith's symphony "Pittsburgh" premieres

Jan 31st:

Talk about notable.. Monteverdi and Schubert were both born on this date. Also Benjamin Frankel, a composer I admire greatly and who is featured on my blog (thus far) in a couple posts. -And so I don't get any 'hey what about..." comments...yes, todays is also Philip Glass's birthday.

1517 Gioseffo Zarlino
1573 Ambrosius Metzger
1573 Giulio Cesare Monteverdi
1614 Nicolas Saboly
1734 Julien-Amable Mathieu
1759 Francois Devienne
1784 Carl Wilhelm Henning
1797 Franz Schubert
1798 Karl Gottlieb Reissiger
1836 Henryk Szulc
1891 Max Drischner
1901 Blaz Arnic
1906 Benjamin Frankel
1913 Hector Iglesias Villoud
1915 Bobby Hackett, Providence RI, trumpeter/orchestra leader
1915 Alan Lomax, American musicologist (an American treasure!)
1917 Jose Maceda
1921 Mario Lanza, Phila, actor/singer
1935 Bojidar Dimov
1937 Philip Glass
1945 Noah Creshevsky
1947 Jim Nollman
1956 Johnny Rotten, (John Lydon), Sex Pistols

Events:

1679 Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera "Bellerophon" premieres in Paris
1904 Bela Bartok's symphony "Kossuth" premieres
1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
1994 Barcelona opera theater "Gran Teatro del Liceo" burns down

Feb 1st:

1603 Michael Trumper
1633 Gabriel Schutz
1669 Miguel Lopez
1673 Alessandro Marcello
1690 Francesco Maria Veracini
1789 Hippolyte-Andre-Baptiste Chelard
1791 Charles J Sax, Belgian instrument builder
1801 Adolf Fredrik Lindblad
1821 Charles Samvei Bovy-Lysberg
1859 Victor Herbert
1875 Eddie Pola (Lullabye of Broadway..)
1877 Thomas Frederick Dunhill
1879 Sydney Baynes
1880 Antonio Guarnieri
1880 Francesco Balilla Pratella
1881 Jose Ignacio Quinton
1892 K Rudolf Mengelberg, composer/musicologist
1894 James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer
1902 Carlo Borbolla
1906 Pierre Cardevielle, French composer/conductor
1907 Mozart Camargo Guarnieri, composer/conductor
1908 Edward Staempfli
1922 Renata Tebaldi, lyric soprano
1928 Ursula Mamlok
1945 Ole Buck

Events:

1893 Puccini's Opera "Manon Lescaut" premieres in Turin
1896 Giacomo Puccini's Opera "La Boheme" premieres in Turin
1918 Franz Lehar's opera "Wo die Lerche singt" premieres in Budapest
1918 Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse's musical premieres in NYC
1930 Arnold Schoenbergs opera, "Von heute auf Morgen" premieres in Frankfurt
1949 RCA releases 1st single record ever (45 rpm)

Feb 2nd:

1669 Louis Marchand
1714 Gottfried August Homilius
1748 Christian Gottfried Thomas
1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek
1804 Leopold Eugen Mechura
1817 Jose Maria de la Purificacion
1840 Louis Bourgault-Ducoudray
1844 Leander Schlegel
1847 Jules Francois Blasini, Curacaos pianist/composer
1856 Makar Grigori Ekmalyan
1873 Leopold Fall, Austria, operetta composer
1875 Fritz Kreisler, violinist/composer
1883 Mikhail Fabianovich Gnesin
1887 Ernst Hanfstängl, German pianist and politician
1888 Candelario Huizar
1904 Jose Enrique Pedreira
1908 Pavel Sivic
1908 Renzo Rossellini
1911 Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, French organist/composer
1911 Johan J "Jussi" Bjorling, Swedish tenor
1912 Burton Lane, Broadway composer
1919 Lisa Debeljevic-della Casa, Swiss vocalist
1925 Michel Paul Philippot
1927 Richard Vance Maxfield
1927 Stan Getz, Phila, jazz tenor saxophonist
1929 Reiner Bredemeyer
1937 Martina Arroyo, opera soprano
1941 Serge Alexandrovich Tcherepnin
1942 Graham Nash, guitarist (Crosby, Stills, Nash)
1944 Andrew Davis, conductor
1944 Ursula Oppens, pianist/co-founder (Speculum Musicae-NYC)
1968 Simon Wickham-Smith

Events:

1633 M Rossi's opera "Erminia sul Giordano" premieres in Rome
1731 George Frederick Handel's opera "Poro" premieres in London
1762 Thomas Arnes's opera "Artaxerxes" premieres in London
1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres
1823 Rossini's opera "Semiramide" premieres in Venice
1900 Gustave Charpentiers opera "Louise" premieres in Paris

Feb 3rd:

Palestrina!! And the one, the only, Mendelssohn.  And the notable 20th century composer for today surely is Luigi Dallapiccola.

1525 Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina
1648 Louis Bouteiller
1736 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, organist/composer
1740 Guillaume Lasceux
1755 Florido Tomeoni
1784 John Fane graaf van Westmorland, opera composer/diplomat
1809 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
1817 Emile Racine Gauthier Prudent
1842 Sidney Clopton Lanier
1868 Damaso Ledesma
1886 Erwin Kroll
1887 Carlo Jachino
1903 Priaulx Rainier
1904 Luigi Dallapiccola
1906 Ludvig Nielsen
1910 Blas Galindo Dimas
1911 Jehan (Ariste) Alain, French organist/composer
1915 Richard Bales

Birthdays & Events for January 29th

A few of the notable birthdays for today include Frederick Delius, Havergal Brian, Ludolf Nielsen, Luigi Nono, and Ferdinand Ries (Ries remains an underrated exceptional composer; he was not only Beethoven's pupil as a child but also a close friend and served as Beethoven's secretary for a period of time. I first heard his music on a Crystal Records disc of music for horn & piano in the late 90's and soon after bought up everything I could find on Naxos and CPO especially. If the classical era is your thing, then Ries will be your overflowing cup of tea)

1703 - Carlmann Kolb
1711 - Giuseppi Bonno
1715 - Georg Christoph Wagenseil
1782 - Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
1782 - Franciszek Ścigalski,
1784 - Ferdinand Ries

Ferdinand Ries

1801 - Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist/composer
1824 - Karl von Perfall
1852 - Frederic Hymen Cowen
1862 - Frederick Delius
1864 - Adolf Philipp
1869 - Andrey Vladimirovich Scherbachov
1871 - Eduardo Lopez-Chavarri y Marco
1874 - Robert Lach
1876 - Carl Henrik Ludolf Nielsen
1876 - Havergal Brian
1884 - Juhan Aavic
1887 - Albert Conti
1889 - Francisco Santiago
1889 - Rudolf Mauersberger
1890 - Marguerite Canal
1893 - Edric Cundell
1893 - Martian Negrea
1898 - Fernand Quinet, Belgian cellist/composer/conductor
1900 - Marco Tajcevic
1924 - Luigi Nono
1928 - Bengt Hambraeus
1931 - Leslie Bricuse
1934 - Paul Gutama Soegijo
1936 - Malcolm Binns, concert pianist
1943 - Timothy Andrew James Souster

Events:

1728 John Gays's "Beggar's Opera" premieres in London
1781 Mozart's opera "Idomeneo" premieres in Munich
1954 Arnold Schoenberg's "De Profundis" premieres in Cologne
1996 La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.

Birthdays and Events for January 28

1627 - Alfonso Marsh
1645 - Gottfried Vopelius
1691 - Johann Balthasar Konig
1693 - Gregor Joseph Werner
1722 - Johann Ernst Bach
1756 - Hans Adolf Friedrich von Eschstruth
1757 - Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni
1832 - Franz Wullner
1841 - Viktor Ernst Nessler
1868 - Frederick Archibald Lamond
1868 - Julian Aguirre
1875 - Julian Antonio Carillo-Trujillo
1878 - Walter Kollo (Kollodziepski)
1887 - Artur Rubinstein, pianist
1887 - Lily Theresa Strickland
1891 - Karel Boleslav Jirak
1893 - Elliot Griffis
1898 - Vittorio Rieti
1900 - Michael Dewar Head
1907 - Constantin Regamey
1908 - Paul Misraki, French composer and songwriter
1913 - Jan Masseus
1916 - Peter Crossley-Holland
1930 - Luis de Pablo
1935 - Leonid Grabovsky
1936 - Robert Suderburg
1944 - John Tavener
1959 - Burkhard Dallwitz

One of the greatest pianists of all time: Artur Rubinstein.

Events:

1830 Daniel Auber's opera "Fra Diavolo" premieres in Paris
1916 Enrique Granados's opera "Goyescas" premieres (NYC)
1936 Pravda (the Soviet newspaper) criticizes Shostakovitch's "Lady Macbeth" opera

To read the original 1936 Pravda article:

http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/25/muddle-not-music-pravdas-review-of-shostakovichs-opera-lady-macbeth/

Not sure how much is lost in translation, but it gives one a glance of what DSCH had to deal with under the regime.

Birthdays for January 27th

Jan 27th:

Today's mvc (most valuable composer?) birthday-boy is obvious. Question is, do I bother posting anything in his honor? I simply *love* the Requiem and the Clarinet Concerto, among some others..but I'm sure that if one searches most other blogs there's likely 100+ posts dedicated to 'Wolfie' on each one..

I just might have to watch "Amadeus" after work tonight at least; what a magnificent film! The superb Tom Hulce plays the composer as a fiery, passionate and somewhat eccentric person..not to mention likely the goofiest portrayal of any artistic genius in the history of cinema. Mozart was not quite that boyish and impetuous in reality, from what I know anyway; but that's part of the charm and great fun of it all! Oh, and Salieri didn't actually poison the maestro folks, nor did he in any way have anything to do with helping the ailing composer with his last score: the Requiem (although Franz Xaver Süssmayr 'tinkered' with portions of it as it remained unfinished at the time of Mozart's death). But damn.. F. Murray Abraham gives such a knock-out performance!

1592 - Pierre de La Barre
1715 - Vaclav Kalous

1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1775 - Manuel del Popolo Vicente Rodriguez Garcia, Spanish tenor/composer
1784 - Martin-Joseph Mengal

1806 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (I believe Arriaga would have been one of the -greatest- composers of his time had his life not been cut so tragically short. Something perhaps of the "Basque Mozart", he died at the age of 19. Check out his three string quartets if you haven't already. Or his only Symphony, or better yet everything that is recorded (he wrote I think 30 or so works, yet I don't think all of them are commercially available.

1823 - Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo
1828 - Louis Schubert
1830 - Georg Hellmesberger
1867 - Claude Antoine Terrasse
1868 - Cato Engelen-Sewing, Dutch soprano prima donna
1869 - Will Marion Cook
1885 - Jerome Kern, Broadway composer
1885 - Eduard Künneke
1892 - Mitya Stillman
1895 - Claudio Carneyro
1895 - Joseph Rosenstock, Kraków Poland, conductor
1895 - Harry Ruby
1899 - Granville English
1906 - Radames Gnattali
1913 - Milton Adolphus
1913 - Valery Viktorovich Zhelobinsky
1918 - Skitch Henderson, orchestra leader
1919 - Nina Milkina, pianist
1920 - Helmut Zacharias, German violinist
1924 - Alexander Georgiyevich Chugayev
1928 - Jean-Michel Damase, composer
1937 - John Ogdon, Manchester England, pianist/composer
1939 - Tigran Yegiayi Mansuryan (Mansurian)
1942 - Petr Kotik
1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet dancer
1952 - Peter Garland

Events:

1778 - Piccinni's opera "Roland" premieres in Paris

Birthdays for January 26th

Jan 26th:

1613 Johann Jakob Wolleb

1708 William Hayes

1742 Johann Friedrich Ludwig Sievers

1748 Emmanuel Aloys Forster

1852 Frederick Corder

1855 Arthur Hervey

1900 Karl Ristenpart, German conductor 

1901 Ervin Major

1905 Maria Augusta von Trapp, Austria, singer

1907 Eddie Ballantine, orchestra leader

1908 Stephane Grappelli, French jazz/violinist

1910 Marijan Lipovsek

1911 Norbert Schultze

1916 Lothar Jensch

1921 Frantisek Chaun

1921 Johannes Driessler

1924 Warren Frank Benson

1935 Peter Ronnefeld

1935 Zbigniew Penherski

1943 Peter Kenton Winkler, composer

1945 Jacqueline du Pré, cellist

Events:

1790 - Mozart's opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" premieres in Vienna

1833 - Gaetano Dinozetti's opera "Lucrezia Borgia" premieres in Milan

1905 - Arnold Schoenberg's "Pelleas und Melissande" premieres in Vienna

1911 - Richard Strauss's opera "Die Rosenkavalier" premieres, Dresden

1922 - Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Pastoral Symphony" premieres in London

1957 - Poulenc's opera "Dialogue des Carmelites" premieres at La Scala in Milan

1962 - David Diamond's Symphony No. 7 premieres in Philadelphia

Birthdays for January 24-25

Jan 24th:

1758 - Johann Chrysostomus Drexel
1774 - Karl Moser
1776 - Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
1828 - Karol Studzinski
1829 - William Mason
1859 - Alexander Alexandrovich Il'yinsky
1909 - Tiny Winters, musician
1913 - Norman Dello Joio
1915 - Vitezslava Kapralova
1918 - Gottfried von Einem
1919 - Leon Kirchner
1923 - Simeon ten Holt
1924 - David Craighead
1924 - Klaus George Roy
1931 - Ib Norholm
1932 - Werner Steger
1936 - Daniel Goode
1944 - Klaus Nomi, German singer and musician (non-classical occasionally too!)
1972 - Naoshi Mizuta

Events:

1874 - Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov" premieres in St. Petersburg
1914 - Victor Herbert's one-act opera "Madeleine" premieres in NYC
1936 - Benny Goodman & orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" on Victor Records

Jan 25th:

1750 - Johann Gottfried Vierling
1834 - Pablo Hernandez Salces
1844 - Frederick E Kitziger
1851 - Jan Blockx
1858 - Giuseppi Radiciotti
1880 - Francis George Scott
1881 - Gustave Frederic Soderlund
1884 - Edward Kilenyi
1886 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
1889 - Vladimir Vladimirovich Scherbachov
1910 - Hendrik Willem Hans Osieck
1911 - Julia Frances Smith
1921 - Alfred Reed
1927 - Antonio Carlos Jobim
1938 - Etta James (Jamesette Hawkins), singer (Roll with Me, At Last etc..)

Events:

1817 - Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" premieres in Rome
1835 - Vincenzo Bellini's opera "I Puritani" premieres in Paris
1902 - Alexander Scriabin's Symphony No. 2 in C premieres in St. Petersburg
1908 - John Blockx's opera "Baldie" premieres in Antwerp
1915 - Giordano, Sardou & Moreau's opera "Madame Sans Gêne" premieres in NYC

Birthdays for January 20th to 23rd

Jan 20th:

1586 - Johann Hermann Schein
1681 - Francesco Bartolomeo Conti
1703 - Joseph-Hector Fiocco
1743 - Pascal Boyer
1761 - Giovanni Domenico Perotti
1762 - Jerome-Joseph de Momigny
1783 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, cellist and composer
1809 - Sebastian de Iradier
1844 - Johan Peter Selmer
1855 - Ernest Chausson
1870 - Guillaume Jean Joseph Nicolas Lekeu
1876 - Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist
1888 - Lead Belly (THE original blues man and 12-string guitarist..love him.)
1891 - Mischa Elman, violinist
1894 - Walter (Hamor) Piston
1896 - Elmer R Diktonius, Finnish musicologist/author
1899 - Alexander Tcherepnin
1900 - Boris Semyonovich Shekhter
1908 - Wilfred Conwell Bain
1910 - Ennio Porrino
1919 - Royalton Kisch, conductor
1919 - Stepan Lucky
1922 - Ray Anthony, American orchestra leader
1924 - Yvonne Loriod, pianist
1926 - David Eugene Tudor
1931 - Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese songwriter and pianist
1940 - Jorge Peixinho
1951 - Ivan Fischer, conductor

Jan 21st:

1735 - Johann Gottfried Eckard
1751 - Josephus Andreas Fodor
1762 - Giuseppe Antonio Silvani
1775 - Manuel Garcia
1801 - Ramon Vilanova y Barrera
1814 - Thomas Attwood Walmisley
1823 - Alexandre Edouard Goria
1848 - Henri Duparc
1859 - Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski
1887 - Alfred Henry Ackley
1891 - Nikolay Semyonovich Golovanov
1891 - Timothy Mather Spelman
1898 - Avery Claflin
1909 - Todor Skalovski
1910 - Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai composer and bandleader
1920 - Torsten Nilsson
1921 - Todor Popov
1926 - Franco Evangelisti
1926 - Brian Brockless, organist
1941 - Placido Domingo, tenor
1944 - Neely Bruce
1947 - Michel Jonasz, French singer and composer
1972 - Yasunori Mitsuda
1988 - William Johansson

Events:

1904 - Leos Janacek's opera "Jenufa" premieres in Brno
1927 - 1st national opera broadcast from a US opera house ("Faust", Chicago)
1947 - Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel

Jan 22nd:

1649 - Pascal Collasse
1707 - Carl Hockh
1709 - Joseph Reipel
1727 - Claude-Benigne Balbastre
1729 - Giuseppe Luigi Tibaldi
1748 - Lewis Edson
1753 - Peter Fuchs
1756 - Vincenzo Righini
1779 - Stefano Pavesi
1781 - Francois-Antoine Habeneck
1815 - Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger
1824 - Josef Leopold Zvonar
1842 - Charles Henri Marechal
1855 - Ernst Kullak
1861 - Karel Stecker
1870 - Charles Arnold Tournemire
1871 - Leon Jessel
1882 - Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born actor, ballet dancer and choreographer
1886 - John Joseph Becker
1890 - Vinko Zganec, Croatian ethnomusicologist
1897 - Josef Stanislav
1897 - Rosa Ponselle, opera diva
1898 - Alexander Abramsky
1898 - Gustaf Paulson
1900 - Franz Salmhofer
1901 - Hans-Erich Apostel
1903 - Robin Humphrey Milford
1904 - Ballet Choreographer George Balanchine (Giorgi Balanchivadze)
1911 - Roberto Garcia Morillo
1911 - Suzanne Danco, Belgian opera singer
1913 - Verdina Shlonsky
1914 - Dimitri Dragatakis
1916 - Henri Dutilleux
1921 - Andre Hodeir
1923 - Friedrich Zehm
1923 - Leslie Bassett
1924 - J J Johnson, composer/jazz trombonist
1940 - Tilo Medek
1948 - Gilbert Levine, conductor
1953 - Myung-Whun Chung, Seoul South Korea, pianist/conductor (Chung Trio)

Events:

1575 - Queen Elizabeth I grants Thomas Tallis & William Byrd music press monopoly
1910 - Alberto Franchetti's opera "Germania" premieres in NYC
1934 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's opera "Lady MacBeth of the Mtsensk District" premieres in Leningrad

Jan 23rd:

1752 - Muzio Clementi
1813 - Franz Commer
1820 - Alexander Nikoleyevich Serov
1843 - Hans Heinrich XIV Hochberg
1867 - Herbert Bedford
1868 - Juventino Rosas
1869 - Carlo Felice Boghen
1878 - Rutland Boughton
1885 - Boleslaw Wallek-Walewski
1900 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist
1902 - Benny Waters, saxophonist
1904 - Theodor Schaefer
1909 - Norman Fulton
1910 - Django Reinhardt,  jazz guitarist and composer
1925 - Marty Paich, orchestra leader
1933 - Joel Spiegelman
1950 - John Greaves, English musician

Events:

1940 - Pianist and composer Ignaz Paderewski, in exile becomes head of the National Council of Poland, a Polish parliament in London
1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1944 - Arnold Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon" premieres in NYC

That's all, folks.. I would love to post music but there's a blizzard about to hit so I'm heading to stay with family for the weekend!

Good weekend to all,

Tzadik