Celebration Day
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Conlon Nancarrow *X 27 1912 — The Life You Give
Conlon Nancarrow was an iconoclastic American composer who wrote in an utterly new way using new instrumental resources. While isolated from the main currents of music, he was virtually ignored by the public and his colleagues until the 1970s. In the 1980s composer György Ligeti said Nancarrow was writing “the best music by any living…
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John Cleese *X 27 1939 — The Life You Give
John Marwood Cleese, born October 27, 1939, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, is a comic actor best known for his television work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. Cleese began writing and performing in comedy revues at Clifton College in Bristol, England, and was a member of the renowned Footlights Club while a law…
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Mahalia Jackson *X 26 1911 — The Life You Give
Mahalia Jackson, born October 26, 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., is the gospel music singer, known as the “Queen of Gospel Song.” Jackson was brought up in a strict religious atmosphere. Her father’s family included several entertainers, but she was forced to confine her own musical activities to singing in the church choir and…
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Domenico Scarlatti *X 26 1685 — The Life You Give
Domenico Scarlatti, born Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, October 26, 1685, in Naples [Italy], is the composer noted particularly for his 555 keyboard sonatas, which substantially expanded the technical and musical possibilities of the harpsichord. Early life and vocal works: Italy Domenico, the son of the famous composer of vocal music Alessandro Scarlatti, was born in the…
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Sofia Gubaidulina *X 24 1931 — The Life You Give
Sofia Gubaidulina, born October 24, 1931, Chistopol, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic [now Tatarstan, Russia]), is the composer whose works fuse Russian and Central Asian regional styles with the Western classical tradition. During her youth, Gubaidulina studied music in the city of Kazan, the capital of her home republic. She had lessons at the Kazan…
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Luciano Berio *X 24 1925 — The Life You Give
Luciano Berio, born October 24, 1925, in Oneglia, Italy, is the musician, whose success as theorist, conductor, composer, and teacher placed him among the leading representatives of the musical avant-garde. His style is notable for combining lyric and expressive musical qualities with the most advanced techniques of electronic and aleatory music. Berio studied composing and…
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Renata Tarragó *X 23 1927 — The Life You Give
Renata Tarragó Fábregas is the guitarist and vihuelist (*) who was a teacher and performer, both as a solo artist and an accompanist. She was the first female guitarist to record Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, and was the editor of the first published edition of the Concierto de Aranjuez score. Tarragó was born in…
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Pelé *X 23 1940 — The Life You Give
Pelé, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil, is the football (soccer) player, in his time probably the most famous and possibly the best-paid athlete in the world. He was part of the Brazilian national teams that won three World Cup championships (1958, 1962, and 1970). After playing for a…
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Franz Liszt *X 22 1811 — The Life You Give
Franz Liszt, Hungarian form Liszt Ferenc, born October 22, 1811, Doborján, kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire [now Raiding, Austria], is the piano virtuoso and composer who composed many notable compositions — 12 symphonic poems, two (completed) piano concerti, several sacred choral works, and a great variety of solo piano pieces. Youth and early training Liszt’s…
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Sir Georg Solti *X 21 1912 — The Life You Give
Georg Solti, born October 21, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary, conductor and pianist, is one of the most highly regarded conductors of the second half of the 20th century. He was especially noted for his interpretations of Romantic orchestral and operatic works. Solti studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Béla Bartók and…
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Celia Cruz *X 21 1925 — La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
See the biography in English below A lo largo de más de medio siglo de trayectoria artística, la indiscutible Reina de la Salsa grabó alrededor de setenta álbumes y ochocientas canciones, cosechó veintitrés discos de oro y recibió cinco premios Grammy. Mucho más relevantes, sin embargo, fueron las innumerables giras y conciertos que prodigó por…
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Elfriede Jelinek *X 20 1946 — The Life You Give
Elfriede Jelinek, born October 20, 1946, in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, is the novelist, playwright, and poet noted for her controversial works on gender relations, female sexuality, and popular culture. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004. Jelinek received her education in Vienna, where the combination of her academic studies with a rigorous program…
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Charles Ives *X 20 1874 — The Life You Give
Charles Ives, born Charles Edward Ives, October 20, 1874, in Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.A., is the significant composer known for a number of innovations that anticipated most of the later musical developments of the 20th century. Ives received his earliest musical instruction from his father, who was a bandleader, music teacher, and acoustician who experimented with…
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Emil Gilels *X 19 1916 — The Life You Give
Emil Gilels, born Emil Grigoryevich Gilels, Oct. 6 [Oct. 19, New Style], 1916, in Odessa, Ukraine, is the concert pianist admired for his superb technique, tonal control, and disciplined approach. Gilels began piano studies at age 6 and gave his first public concert in 1929 at age 13. In 1933 he gained top honours in…
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Klaus Kinski *X 18 1926 – The Life You Give
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski on October 18 1926, in Zoppot, Germany [now Sopot, Poland] is the intense, eccentric actor who had a stage and film career of more than 40 years and who was best known for his riveting performances in the films of Werner Herzog. Kinski’s family moved from Poland to…
Sila Blume 