Music
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Alicia de Larrocha *V 23 1923 — La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
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…
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Richard Wagner *V 22 1813 — The Life You Give
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 Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin…
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Rick Wakeman *V 18 1949 — The Life You Give
One of the premier rock keyboardists of the progressive era, Rick Wakeman cut his teeth as a London session musician at the tail-end of the 1960s before earning star status as a member of prog rock superstars Yes in 1971. He left the band in 1973 to concentrate on his burgeoning solo career and within…
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Erik Satie *V 17 1866 — 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…
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Friedrich Gulda *V 16 1930 — The Life You Give
In a career that offered striking recordings in both the classical and jazz idioms, Friedrich Gulda was alternately described as “eccentric” and even a “terrorist pianist.” He refused to stay in his lane as an interpreter of the great European composers, entering the jazz field in a period of stunning transition and making a mark…
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Robert Fripp *V 16 1946 / 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…
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Maria Theresia von Paradis *V 15 1759 — The Life You Give
Maria Theresia von PARADIS (1759-1824) July 2024 (born in Vienna, baptized 15 May 1759) We feature below a contemporary account of Maria Theresia Paradis written within months of her arrival in England in 1784.An Account of Mademoiselle THERESA PARADIS, of Vienna, the celebrated blind Performer on the Piano Forte. This young person, equally distinguished by…
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Brian Eno *V 15 1948 — 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…
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Claudio Monteverdi *V 15 1567 — The Life You Give
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…
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Stevie Wonder *V 13 1950 — 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.…
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Gabriel Fauré *V 12 1845 — The Life You Give
Gabriel Fauré, born May 12, 1845, in Pamiers, Ariège, France, is the composer whose refined and gentle music influenced the course of modern French music. Fauré’s musical abilities became apparent at an early age. When the Swiss composer and teacher Louis Niedermeyer heard the boy, he immediately accepted him as a pupil. Fauré studied piano…
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Judith Weir *V 11 1954 — The Life You Give
Judith Weir was born May 11 1954 in Cambridge, England, into a Scottish family but grew up near London. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway;…
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Bono *V 10 1960 — The Life You Give
Bono, born Paul David Hewson, May 10, 1960, in Dublin, Ireland, is lead singer for the popular Irish rock band U2 and prominent human rights activist. He was born of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother (who died when he was just age 14). In Dublin in 1977, he and school friends David…
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Milton Babbitt *V 10 1916 / The Life You Give
Milton Babbitt, born Milton Byron Babbitt, on May 10, 1916, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., is the composer and theorist known as a leading proponent of total serialism—i.e., musical composition based on prior arrangements not only of all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale (as in 12-tone music) but also of dynamics, duration, timbre (tone colour),…
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Billy Joel *V 9 1949 / The Life You Give
Billy Joel, born William Martin Joel, on May 9, 1949, in Bronx, New York, U.S.A., is singer, pianist, and songwriter in the pop ballad tradition whose numerous hit songs in the 1970s and ’80s made him an enduring favourite on the concert circuit. Joel, whose father was a German Jewish immigrant, was raised in Hicksville,…
Sila Blume 