Breathing Curiosity
It seems odd to consider the work of Dagmar Krause as specifically rock, mainly due to her superb talent singing non-rock popular music. It is because of her association with German progressive rockers Slapp Happy, and British avant-garde prog rockers Henry Cow and the Art Bears that Krause becomes a suitable subject for inclusion in… Continue reading The Life You Give: Dagmar Krause *1950
Josephine Baker, born Freda Josephine McDonald, June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., is the dancer and singer who symbolized the beauty and vitality of Black American culture, which took Paris by storm in the 1920s.Baker grew up fatherless and in poverty. Between the ages of 8 and 10 she was out of school,… Continue reading The Life You Give: Josephine Baker *1906
Sir Edward Elgar, born Edward William Elgar, June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, Worcestershire, England, is the composer whose works in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism—characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms—stimulated a renaissance of English music.The son of an organist and music dealer, Elgar left school at age… Continue reading The Life You Give: Edward Elgar *1857
Mikhail Glinka, born Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, May 21 [June 1, New Style], 1804, in Novospasskoye, Russia, is the first Russian composer to have won international recognition and the acknowledged founder of the Russian nationalist school.Glinka first became interested in music at age 10 or 11, when he heard his uncle’s private orchestra. He studied at… Continue reading The Life You Give: Mikhail Glinka *1804
Shirley Verrett was one of America's finest opera stars and recital singers, and was one of the remarkable generation of great African-American singers who came to international prominence in the 1950s and 1960s.She studied voice in Los Angeles with Anna Fitziu and Hall Johnson. In 1955, she won the nationally broadcast CBS program Arthur Godfrey's… Continue reading Shirley Verrett *V 31 1931 / The Life You Give
Drummer John Bonham, often referred to by his nickname "Bonzo," was one of the most important and influential drummers of the 1960s and '70s -- as a member of Led Zeppelin, he was also a bona fide superstar for the last decade of his life and, along with Ringo Starr of the Beatles, Charlie Watts… Continue reading John Bonham *V 31 1948 / The Life You Give
Pauline Oliveros, born May 30, 1932, in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., is the composer and performer known for conceiving a unique, meditative, improvisatory approach to music called “deep listening.”Oliveros was raised in a family that encouraged involvement with music. At age 10 she was introduced to the accordion by her mother, who was a pianist. Oliveros… Continue reading Pauline Oliveros *V 30 1932 The Life You Give / La Vida Que Das
The accomplished pianist, Nurit Tilles, was born in New York on May 29, 1952. She studied at the preparatory division of the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1961-68) and at the Oberlin (Ohio) Coll. Cons. of Music (B.Mus., 1973); after taking courses in tabla and gamelan at the Center for World Music (1974), she… Continue reading Nurit Tilles *V 29 1952 / The Life You Give
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, born May 28, 1925, in Berlin, Germany, was an operatic baritone and preeminent singer of lieder, distinguished for his lyrical voice, commanding presence, and superb artistry. Fischer-Dieskau studied with Georg Walter before serving in World War II and with Hermann Weissenborn afterward. In 1947 he made his concert debut in Johannes Brahms’s Ein… Continue reading The Life You Give: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau *1925
György Ligeti, born György Sándor Ligeti, May 28, 1923, in Diciosânmartin [now Tîrnăveni], Transylvania, Romania, is a leading composer of the branch of avant-garde music concerned principally with shifting masses of sound and tone colours.Ligeti, the great-nephew of violinist Leopold Auer, studied and taught music in Hungary until the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, when he… Continue reading György Ligeti *V 28 1923 / The Life You Give
Davis’s early playing was sometimes tentative and not always fully in tune, but his unique, intimate tone and his fertile musical imagination outweighed his technical shortcomings. By the early 1950s Davis had turned his limitations into considerable assets. Rather than emulate the busy, wailing style of such bebop pioneers as Gillespie, Davis explored the trumpet’s… Continue reading Miles Davis *V 26 1926 / The Life You Give
Rosario Castellanos, born May 25, 1925, in Mexico City, Mexico, is the novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and diplomat who was probably the most important Mexican woman writer of the 20th century. Her 1950 master’s thesis, Sobre cultura femenina (“On Feminine Culture”), became a turning point for modern Mexican women writers, who found in it… Continue reading Rosario Castellanos *V 25 1925 — The Life You Give / La Vida Que Das
Weird, strange, unusual —- all terms which seem to me quite inaccurate labels for things we are either not accustomed to or lead us to somewhat uncomfortable states.Which might be the “right” time of the day to absorb such moments, especially those of the musical type?Before going to bed, the common thought is that relaxation… Continue reading Difficult Morning
See biography in English below Alicia de Larrocha de la Calle nació el 23 de mayo de 1923, en el 4º piso de la calle Córcega nº 263 bis, esquina Calle Enrique Granados, de Barcelona. Fue la tercera de 4 hermanos (Teresa, Berta, Alicia, y Ramón). Sus padres fueron Eduardo de Larrocha y Teresa de… Continue reading Alicia de Larrocha *V 23 1923 La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
by Elizabeth Rivero
Vea biografía en español abajo Richard Wagner, born Wilhelm Richard Wagner, on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Germany, is the dramatic composer and theorist whose operas and music had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music, either by extension of his discoveries or reaction against them. Among his major works are The Flying… Continue reading Richard Wagner *V 22 1813 / The Life You Give
Erik Satie, born Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, on May 17, 1866, in Honfleur, Calvados, France, is the composer whose spare, unconventional, often witty style exerted a major influence on 20th-century music, particularly in France.Satie studied at the Paris Conservatory, dropped out, and later worked as a café pianist. About 1890 he became associated with the… Continue reading Erik Satie *V 17 1866 / The Life You Give
A truly singular figure in rock music, Robert Fripp is a guitarist, composer, and bandleader who has brought a unique, strikingly intelligent perspective to his work. One of the most technically gifted guitarists in rock, Fripp is the thinking-person's guitar hero, showing no interest in shredding but eager to challenge himself and blaze new trails… Continue reading Robert Fripp *V 16 1946 / The Life You Give
Brian Eno, born Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, May 15, 1948, in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, is producer, composer, keyboardist, and singer who helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most popular bands of the 1980s and ’90s and who created the genre of ambient music.While an… Continue reading The Life You Give: Brian Eno *1948
Claudio Monteverdi, baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona, Duchy of Milan [Italy], is the composer in the late Renaissance, seen as most important developer of the then new genre, the opera. He also did much to bring a “modern” secular spirit into church music.Monteverdi, the son of a barber-surgeon and chemist, studied with the director of… Continue reading Claudio Monteverdi *V 15 1567 / The Life You Give
Stevie Wonder, born Steveland Judkins or Steveland Morris, May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.A., is the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.Blind from birth and raised in inner-city Detroit, he was a skilled musician by age eight. Renamed… Continue reading Stevie Wonder *V 13 1950 / The Life You Give
Sila Blume 