Personalities
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Alfred Brendel *I 5 1931 — The Life You Give
Alfred Brendel, born January 5, 1931, in Wiesenberg, Czechoslovakia [now Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic], is a pianist and writer whose recordings and international concert appearances secured his reputation. He is best known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music, recording several cycles of the composer’s piano sonatas and concertos. Brendel studied the piano…
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Nikolai Medtner *I 4 1880 — The Life You Give
Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (or Metner) was born January 4 1880 in Moscow, to parents of German descent who had lived in Russia for several generations. The family background was musical; his mother’s brother was Fedor Gedike (Theodore Goedicke), a minor Romantic composer and professional pianist. He received early piano lessons from his mother…
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Isaac Newton *I 4 1643 — The Life You Give
Isaac Newton, born January 4, 1643 [New Style], in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, is the physicist and mathematician who was the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. In optics, his discovery of the composition of white light integrated the phenomena of colours into the science of light and laid the foundation for…
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Grace Bumbry *I 4 1937 — The Life You Give
Grace Bumbry is a pioneering Mezzo & Soprano. Few mezzo-sopranos have successfully made the transition to becoming top sopranos. Grace Bumbry managed that. She was also a major figure in helping black singers find their rightful place on the opera stage in an era where segregation ran rampant. Born on Jan. 4, 1937, the mezzo…
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Louis Braille *I 4 1809 — The Life You Give
Louis Braille, born January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, near Paris, France, is the educator who developed a system of printing and writing, called Braille, that is extensively used by the blind. Braille was himself blinded at the age of three in an accident that occurred while he was playing with tools in his father’s harness…
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J. R. R. Tolkien *I 3 1892 — The Life You Give
J. R. R. Tolkien, born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is the writer and scholar who achieved fame with his children’s book The Hobbit (1937) and his richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). At age four, Tolkien, with his mother and younger brother, settled near…
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Edmund Burke *I.1.1729 — The Life You Give
Edmund Burke, born January 1, [Old Style], 1729, in Dublin, Ireland, was statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker prominent in public life from 1765 to about 1795 and important in the history of political theory. He championed conservatism in opposition to Jacobinism in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Early life Burke, the son…
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Jennifer Higdon *XII 31 1962 — The Life You Give
Jennifer Higdon is one of the leading composers in the USA from the turn of the 21st century era. Her earliest compositions date to the early ’80s, but she emerged as an important figure in the period of the new millennium with such orchestra works as blue cathedral (1999), City Scape (2002), and Concerto for…
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Rudyard Kipling *XII 30 1865 — The Life You Give
Rudyard Kipling, born Joseph Rudyard Kipling on December 30, 1865, in Bombay [now Mumbai], India, is the short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Life Kipling’s…
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Pablo Casals *XII 29 1876 — The Life You Give / La Vida Que Das
Pablo Casals, born Pau Casals i Defilló, on December 29, 1876, in Vendrell, Spain, was cellist and conductor, known for his virtuosic technique, skilled interpretation, and consummate musicianship. Biografía en español después de la foto Casals made his debut in Barcelona in 1891 after early training in composition, cello, and piano. After further study in…
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Earle Brown *XII 26 1926 — The Life You Give
Earle Brown, born Earle Appleton Brown on December 26, 1926, Lunenburg, Massachusetts, was one of the leading American composers of avant-garde music, best known for his development of graphic notation and the open-form system of composition. Brown had been trained in engineering and mathematics before he began to study music theory and composition. In 1952…
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Louise Bourgeois *XII 25 1911 — The Life You Give
Louise Bourgeois, born December 25, 1911, in Paris, France, is the sculptor known for her monumental abstract and often biomorphic works that deal with the relationships of men and women. Born to a family of tapestry weavers, Bourgeois made her first drawings to assist her parents in their restoration of ancient tapestries. She attended the…
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Edita Gruberova *XII 23 1946 — The Life You Give
Edita Gruberova, born December 23, 1946, in Bratislava, was a Slovak soprano and one of the most acclaimed coloraturas of recent decades. She is noted for her great tonal clarity, agility, and ability to sing high notes with great power, making her an ideal Queen of the Night in her early years. In recent years,…
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Jean-Michel Basquiat *XII 22 1960 — The Life You Give
Jean-Michel Basquiat, born December 22 1960, in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A., is the painter known for his raw gestural style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text. Basquiat was raised in a middle-class home in Brooklyn. His mother was an US-American of Puerto Rican descent. She encouraged Basquiat’s interest in art, taking him to…
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Giacomo Puccini *XII 22 1858 — The Life You Give
Giacomo Puccini, born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, December 22, 1858, in Lucca, Tuscany [Italy], is the composer, and one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas included La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (left…
Sila Blume 