Celebration Day
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Emir Kusturica *XI 24 1954 — The Life You Give
Emir Kusturica, born November 24, 1954, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia [now in Bosnia and Herzegovina]), is the motion picture director, screenwriter, actor, and producer who was one of the most-distinguished European filmmakers since the mid-1980s, best known for surreal and naturalistic movies that express deep sympathies for people from the margins. Kusturica, who made notable short…
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Tina Weymouth *XI 22 1950 — The Life You Give
One of the first bassists to merge funk with punk/alternative music was the Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth. Born on November 22, 1950, in Coronado, CA, Weymouth’s family moved quite a bit early on, as her father served in the Navy. Although Weymouth first picked up a guitar at the age of 14, she failed to…
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Benjamin Britten *XI 22 1913 — The Life You Give
Benjamin Britten, born Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten Of Aldeburgh, November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, is the composer of the mid-20th century, whose operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century. He was also an outstanding pianist and conductor. Britten composed as a child and…
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Björk *XI 21 1965 — The Life You Give
Björk, born Björk Gudmundsdottir, November 21, 1965, in Reykjavík, Iceland, is the singer-songwriter and actress best known for her solo work covering a wide variety of music styles. Integrating electronic and organic sounds, her music frequently explored the relationship between nature and technology. Björk recorded her first solo album, a collection of cover versions of…
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Meredith Monk *XI 20 1942 — The Life You Give
Meredith Monk, born Meredith Jane Monk, November 20, 1942, New York City, New York, U.S.A., is the performance artist, a pioneer in the avant-garde, whose work skillfully integrated diverse performance disciplines and media. Monk studied piano and eurythmics from an early age. She earned a B.A. in 1964 from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York.…
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Martin Scorsese *XI 17 1942 — The Life You Give
Martin Scorsese, born Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese, November 17, 1942, Queens, New York, U.S.), American filmmaker known for his harsh, often violent depictions of American culture. From the 1970s Scorsese created a body of work that was ambitious, bold, and brilliant. But even his most acclaimed films are demanding, sometimes unpleasantly intense dramas that have…
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Paul Hindemith *XI 16 1895 — The Life You Give
Paul Hindemith, born November 16, 1895, in Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the one of the principal German composers of the first half of the 20th century and a leading musical theorist. He sought to revitalize tonality—the traditional harmonic system that was being challenged by many other composers—and also pioneered in the writing…
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Fanny Mendelssohn *XI 14 1805 — The Life You Give
Fanny Mendelssohn, born Fanny (Cäcilie) Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy, married name Fanny Hensel), on November 14, 1805, Hamburg [Germany], is the pianist and composer, the eldest sister and confidante of the composer Felix Mendelssohn. Fanny is said to have been as talented musically as her brother, and the two children were given the same music teachers. Felix…
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Loriot *XI 12 1923 — The Life You Give
German for “Oriole,” Loriot was the nom de plume of humorist, actor, writer, and widely popular artist Vicco von Bülow. Born in November of 1923, von Bülow worked under the aforementioned pseudonym for his entire career, creating a number of characters and works that would elevate him to the status of one of Germany’s most…
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky *XI 11 1821 — The Life You Give
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, born Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky, Dostoyevsky also spelled Dostoevsky, on November 11 [October 30, Old Style], 1821, Moscow, Russia, is the novelist and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century fiction. Dostoyevsky is usually regarded…
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Greg Lake *XI 10 1947 — The Life You Give
As a singer and instrumentalist, Greg Lake had his greatest success and influence in the progressive rock outfit Emerson, Lake & Palmer and, before that, as a founding member of the original King Crimson. He was also reasonably popular as a solo artist working in more of a hard rock idiom. As a boy, growing…
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Friedrich von Schiller *XI 10 1759 The Life You Give
Friedrich Schiller, born Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller, Nov. 10, 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg [Germany], is a leading dramatist, poet, and literary theorist, best remembered for such dramas as Die Räuber (1781; The Robbers), the Wallenstein trilogy (1800–01), Maria Stuart (1801), and Wilhelm Tell (1804). Friedrich Schiller was the second child of Lieut. Johann Kaspar Schiller…
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Thomas Quasthoff *XI 9 1959 — The Life You Give
Thomas Quasthoff, born November 9, 1959, in Hildesheim, Germany, is the singer whose powerful bass-baritone voice placed him among the preeminent classical vocalists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Quasthoff was born with severe disabilities, the result of his mother’s having taken the drug thalidomide during her early pregnancy as a treatment for…
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Joan Sutherland *XI 7 1926 — The Life You Give
Joan Sutherland, in full Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, born November 7, 1926, in Sydney, Australia, is the operatic soprano who was considered the leading coloratura of the 20th century. The daughter of a gifted singer, she studied piano and voice with her mother until 1946, when she won a vocal competition and began studying voice…
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Marie Curie *XI 7 1867 — The Life You Give
Marie Curie, born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire, is the physicist, famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was the sole…
Sila Blume 