celebration
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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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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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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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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 Germany…
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Paul Simon *X 13 1941 — The Life You Give
Paul Simon, born Paul Frederic Simon, October 13, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A., is the singer-songwriter who brought a highbrow sensibility to rock music. One of the most paradoxical figures in rock-and-roll history, Simon exemplified many of the principles against which the music initially reacted. From his first big hit, “The Sounds of Silence,”…
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Luciano Pavarotti *X 12 1935 — The Life You Give
Luciano Pavarotti, born October 12, 1935, in Modena, Italy, is the operatic lyric tenor who was considered one of the finest bel canto opera singers of the 20th century. Even in the highest register, his voice was noted for its purity of tone, and his concerts, recordings, and television appearances—which provided him ample opportunity to…
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Alberto Giacometti *X 10 1901 – The Life You Give
Alberto Giacometti, born October 10, 1901, in Borgonovo, Switzerland, is the sculptor and painter, best known for his attenuated sculptures of solitary figures. His work has been compared to that of the existentialists in literature. Giacometti displayed precocious talent and was much encouraged by his father, Giovanni, a Post-Impressionist painter, and by his godfather, Cuno…
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Thelonious Monk *X 10 1917 — The Life You Give
Thelonious Monk, born Thelonious Sphere Monk, on October 10 1917, in Rocky Mount, N.C., U.S.A., is the pianist and composer who was among the first creators of modern jazz. As the pianist in the band at Minton’s Playhouse, a nightclub in New York City, in the early 1940s, Monk had great influence on the other…
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Giuseppe Verdi *X 9/10 1813 — The Life You Give
Giuseppe Verdi, born Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, October 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma , Italy, is the leading Italian composer of opera in the 19th century, noted for operas such as Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) and for his…
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Edwin Fischer *X 6 1886 — The Life You Give
Edwin Fischer was a Swiss pianist, conductor, and educator during the first half of the 20th century. He was known for his expressive interpretations of the piano music of J.S. Bach and Mozart. Fischer was born in 1886 in Basle, Switzerland, and started playing the piano when he was four years old. Both of his…
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Steve Reich *X 3 1936 — The Life You Give
Steve Reich, born Stephen Michael Reich, October 3, 1936, in New York, New York, U.S.A., is the composer who was one of the leading exponents of Minimalism, a style based on repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies. Reich was the son of an attorney and a singer-lyricist. He majored in philosophy at Cornell…
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Miguel de Cervantes *IX 29 1547 — The Life You Give
Miguel de Cervantes, born Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, September 29?, 1547, in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, is the novelist, playwright, and poet, the creator of Don Quixote (1605, 1615) and the most important and celebrated figure in Spanish literature. His novel Don Quixote has been translated, in full or in part, into more than 60…
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Bryan Ferry *IX 26 1945 — The Life You Give
While fronting Roxy Music in the 1970s and early ’80s, Bryan Ferry devised a blueprint for art rock, and as a solo performer, he brilliantly updated the parameters of the pop songbook. Although Ferry’s solo career has included several excellent self-penned tracks, he’s best-known for his adventurous interpretations of songs from the rock and pop…
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William Faulkner *IX 25 1897 — The Life You Give
William Faulkner (born September 25, 1897, New Albany, Mississippi, U.S.—died July 6, 1962, Byhalia, Mississippi) was an American novelist and short-story writer who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature.Youth and early writingsAs the eldest of the four sons of Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Falkner, William Faulkner (as he later spelled his name)…
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Mark Rothko * IX 25 1903 — The Life You Give
Mark Rothko, born September 25, 1903, in Dvinsk, Russian Empire [now Daugavpils, Latvia], is the painter whose works introduced contemplative introspection into the melodramatic post-World War II Abstract Expressionist school. His use of color as the sole means of expression led to the development of Color Field Painting. Early life and education Rothko was born…
Sila Blume 