Personalities
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Jacopo Peri *VIII 20 1561 / The Life You Give
Jacopo Peri, byname Il Zazzerino, born August 20, 1561, in Rome or Florence, is the composer noted for his contribution to the development of dramatic vocal style in early Baroque opera. Under the early sponsorship of the Florentine Cristofano Malvezzi, Peri had published by 1583 both an instrumental work and a madrigal. After early posts…
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Robert Plant *VIII 20 1948 / The Life You Give
Robert Plant, born Robert Anthony Plant, on August 20, 1948, in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, is the singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Plant’s dynamic vocal range and flamboyant stage presence has distinguished him as a popular and influential rock and roll front man. Since the dissolution of…
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Antonio Salieri *VIII 18 1750 / The Life You Give
Antonio Salieri, born Aug. 18, 1750, in Legnago, Republic of Venice [Italy], is the composer whose operas were acclaimed throughout Europe in the late 18th century. At the age of 16, Salieri was taken to Vienna by F.L. Gassmann, the imperial court composer and music director (Hofkapellmeister), and was introduced to Emperor Joseph II. During…
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Kaikhosru Sorabji *VIII 14 1892 — The Life You Give
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, born Leon Dudley Sorabji on August 14 1892, in Chingford, near London, England, is the eccentric English composer known for his complex musical works combining free rhythms, elements of Asiatic melodic construction, and European polyphonic structures. As a young man he became interested in his father’s Parsi heritage and changed his name…
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Alfred Hitchcock *VIII 13 1899 — The Life You Give
Alfred Hitchcock, born August 13, 1899, London, England, is the motion-picture director whose suspenseful films and television programs won immense popularity and critical acclaim over a long and tremendously productive career. His films are marked by a macabre sense of humour and a somewhat bleak view of the human condition. Hitchcock grew up in London’s…
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Ian Anderson *VIII 10 1947 — The Life You Give
Born Ian Scott Anderson, August 10 1947 in Dunfermline, Scotland, Anderson was interested in music from a young age, gaining influence from his father James’ record collection of big band and jazz, as well as early rock & roll by Elvis Presley. The Anderson family later relocated to Blackpool where Ian finished his studies. In…
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Lucille Ball *VIII 6 1911 — The Life You Give
Lucille Ball, born August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York, is the radio and motion-picture actress and longtime comedy star of American television, best remembered for her classic television comedy series “I Love Lucy”. Ball determined at an early age to become an actress and left high school at age 15 to enroll in a…
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Louis Armstrong *VIII 4 1901 — The Life You Give
Louis Armstrong, born August 4 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., was leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. He grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys’ quartet. In 1913…
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James Baldwin *VIII 2 1924 — The Life You Give
James Baldwin, born James Arthur Baldwin on August 2 1924 in New York, New York, is the essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in the United States of America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later,…
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Ernst Jandl *VIII 1 1932 — Das Leben, das Du Gibst / The Life You Give
A biography in English is at the bottom Der österreichische Schriftsteller zählt zu den renommiertesten Repräsentanten der experimentellen Lyrik. Er hat sich vor allen Dingen einen Namen durch seine witzigen Sprachexperimente gemacht. Diesbezüglich ist seine Lyrik zu nennen, die durch die ausgesuchte Klangqualität an die dadaistische Strömung erinnern. Kennzeichnend für sein Schaffen waren die Experimente…
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Jenny Holzer *VII 29 1950 — The Life You Give
Jenny Holzer was born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio. She received a BFA in printmaking and painting from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, in 1972, and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, in 1977. Holzer then moved to New York and enrolled in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney…
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Geddy Lee *VII 29 1953 — The Life You Give
Few hard rock bassists have been as influential as Rush’s Geddy Lee. Born Gary Weinrib on July 29, 1953, in Toronto, his parents migrated from Europe to Canada and got his nickname “Geddy” from when his mother would try to pronounce “Gary” in her accent. Taking up bass as a teenager and influenced by the…
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Mick Jagger *VII 26 1943 — The Life You Give
As the lead singer for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger virtually invented the concept of the rock & roll frontman. Taking his cues from soul singers, bluesmen, and Elvis Presley, Jagger crafted a magnetic, carnal persona that retained its charisma even after it was mimicked and expanded by countless singers who followed in his footsteps.…
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Stanley Kubrick VII 26 1938 — The Life You Give
Stanley Kubrick, born July 26, 1928, in Bronx, New York, U.S.A. is the motion-picture director and writer whose films are characterized by his dramatic visual style, meticulous attention to detail, and a detached, often ironic or pessimistic perspective. An expatriate, Kubrick was nearly as well known for his reclusive lifestyle in the English countryside as…
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Ernest Hemingway *VII 21 1899 — The Life You Give
Ernest Hemingway, born Ernest Miller Hemingway, July 21, 1899, in Cicero [now in Oak Park], Illinois, U.S.A., is the novelist and short-story writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. He was noted both for the intense masculinity of his writing and for his adventurous and widely publicized life. His succinct and lucid prose…
Sila Blume 