celebration
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Sylvia Plath *X 27 1932 — The Life You Give
Sylvia Plath, born October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., is the poet whose best-known works, such as the poems “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” and the novel The Bell Jar, starkly express a sense of alienation and self-destruction closely tied to her personal experiences and, by extension, the situation of women in mid-20th-century America. Plath…
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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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Domenico Scarlatti *X 26 1685 — The Life You Give
Domenico Scarlatti, born Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, October 26, 1685, in Naples [Italy], is the composer noted particularly for his 555 keyboard sonatas, which substantially expanded the technical and musical possibilities of the harpsichord. Early life and vocal works: Italy Domenico, the son of the famous composer of vocal music Alessandro Scarlatti, was born in the…
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Sir Georg Solti *X 21 1912 — The Life You Give
Georg Solti, born October 21, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary, conductor and pianist, is one of the most highly regarded conductors of the second half of the 20th century. He was especially noted for his interpretations of Romantic orchestral and operatic works. Solti studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Béla Bartók 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…
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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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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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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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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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Julie Andrews *X 1 1935 — The Life You Give
Julie Andrews, born Julia Elizabeth Wells on October 1, 1935, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, is a motion-picture, stage, and musical star noted for her crystalline four-octave voice and her charm and skill as an actress. At the age of 10, Andrews began singing with her pianist mother and singer stepfather (whose last name she legally…
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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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Dmitri Shostakovich *IX 25 1906 — The Life You Give
Dmitri Shostakovich, born Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, on September 12 [September 25, New Style], 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia, is the composer renowned particularly for his 15 symphonies, numerous chamber works, and concerti, many of them written under the pressures of government-imposed standards of Soviet art. Shostakovich was the son of an engineer. He entered the…
Sila Blume 