-
Angela Gheorghiu *IX 7 1965 / The Life You Give
Angela Gheorghiu, born Angela Burlacu on September 7, 1965, in Adjud, Romania, is an operatic lyric soprano noted for her powerful voice and commanding stage presence. Gheorghiu early realized her love of singing, and she was supported by her family in working toward a career in opera. She left home at age 14 to study…
-
Amy Beach *IX 5 1867 — The Life You Give
Amy Marcy Beach, born Amy Marcy Cheney, on September 5, 1867, in Henniker, New Hampshire, U.S.A., is the pianist and composer known for her Piano Concerto (1900) and her Gaelic Symphony (1894), the first symphony by an American woman composer. Amy Cheney had already demonstrated precocious musical talent when the family moved to Boston in…
-
Caspar David Friedrich *IX 5 1774 — The Life You Give
Caspar David Friedrich, born September 5, 1774, in Greifswald, Pomerania [now in Germany], is one of the leading figures of the German Romantic movement. His vast, mysterious, atmospheric landscapes and seascapes proclaimed human helplessness against the forces of nature and did much to establish the idea of the Sublime as a central concern of Romanticism.…
-
John Cage *IX 5 1912 / The Life You Give
John Cage, born John Milton Cage, Jr., September 5, 1912, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., is the avant-garde composer whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music. The son of an inventor, Cage briefly attended Pomona College and then traveled in Europe for a time. Returning to the United States in 1931, he…
-
Giacomo Meyerbeer *IX 5 1791 — The Life You Give
Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer, September 5, 1791, in Tasdorf, near Berlin, Germany, is the opera composer who established in Paris a vogue for spectacular romantic opera. Born of a wealthy Jewish family, Meyerbeer studied composition in Berlin and later at Darmstadt, where he formed a friendship with C.M. von Weber. His early…
-
Freddie Mercury *IX 5 1946 / The Life You Give
Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946, in Stone Town, Zanzibar [now in Tanzania], is the rock singer and songwriter whose flamboyant showmanship and powerfully agile vocals, most famously for the band Queen, made him one of rock’s most dynamic front men. Bulsara was born to Parsi parents who had emigrated from India…
-
Anton Bruckner *IX 4 1824 — The Life You Give
Anton Bruckner, born Josef Anton Bruckner, Sept. 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Austria, is the composer of a number of highly original and monumental symphonies. He was also an organist and teacher who composed much sacred and secular choral music. Bruckner was the son of a village schoolmaster and organist in Upper Austria. He showed talent…
-
to travel
After six decades of traveling, only one flight I am unable to recall in any detail. Knowing neither that I was in Manhattan, nor that I was about to fly, nor what leaving, or arriving was, and much less what Cuba was, my aunt carried me on the way to meet my grandmother. That very…
-
Engelbert Humperdinck *IX 1 1854 — The Life You Give
Engelbert Humperdinck, born September 1, 1854, in Siegburg, Prussia [Germany], is the composer known for his opera Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck studied at Cologne and at Munich. In 1879 a Mendelssohn scholarship enabled him to go to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner, who invited him to assist in the production of Parsifal at Bayreuth.…
-
Maria Montessori *VIII 31 1870 — The Life You Give
Maria Montessori, born August 31, 1870, in Chiaravalle, near Ancona, Italy, is the educator and originator of the educational system that bears her name. The Montessori system is based on belief in the creative potential of children, their drive to learn, and the right of each child to be treated as an individual. After graduating…
-
Itzhak Perlman *VIII 31 1945 — The Life You Give
Itzhak Perlman, born August 31, 1945, in Tel Aviv, Palestine [now Tel Aviv–Yafo, Israel]) is a violinist known for his brilliant virtuoso technique. His refinement of detail led many to regard him as one of the finest performers of the major violin repertoire of his time. Perlman was drawn to the violin after hearing it…
-
Peter Maffay *VIII 30 1949 — The Life You Give
Peter Maffay was the best-selling German pop star of his generation, wielding his celebrity to become a powerful advocate for antiwar efforts and an outspoken critic of domestic abuse. Born Peter Alexander Makkay on August 30, 1949, in Brasov, Romania, he was 14 when his family relocated to his parents’ native Germany. Soon after, he…














