Happy Birthday
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George Harrison *II 25 1943
George Harrison, born February 25, 1943, in Liverpool, England, is the musician, singer, and songwriter who gained fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles, one of the most important and influential bands in the history of rock music. Harrison was the youngest of the “Fab Four” and was known as “the quiet Beatle.” He…
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Luis Buñuel *II 22 1900 — La vida que das
Luis Buñuel, nacido en febrero 22, 1900, fue director de cine, y una de las grandes figuras de la historia del cine. Su padre, Leonardo Manuel Buñuel, fue un indiano fantasioso que regresó de Cuba enriquecido y se instaló en Calanda; solía relatar numerosas aventuras ilusorias a los lugareños y afirmaba con bravuconería que sería…
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The Life You Give: Andrés Segovia *1893
Andrés Segovia, born February 21 1893, in Linares, Spain, is the musician acclaimed as the foremost guitarist of his time. He was the most important force in reestablishing the guitar as a concert instrument in the 20th century, chiefly through demonstrating its expressive and technical potential. He continued giving concert performances past the age of…
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Toni Morrison *II 18 1931 — The Live You Give
Toni Morrison, born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, U.S.A., was the writer noted for her examination of Black experience (particularly Black female experience) within the Black community. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Morrison grew up in the American Midwest in a family that possessed an intense…
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Leopold Godowsky *II 13 1870 — The Life You Give
Leopold Godowsky, born February 13, 1870, in Soshly, near Vilnius, Lithuania, Russian Empire, is the renowned Russian-born American virtuoso pianist and composer, known for his exceptional piano technique. Godowsky entered the Berlin High School for Music at age 14; soon thereafter he went to the United States, where he spent most of the remainder of…
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Peter Gabriel *II 13 1950 — The Life You Give
There is a complex, dotted, and cloudy line that divides or unites an individual in two. I am referring to what seems to be two sources and periods in the life of Peter Gabriel, as I see, hear, and think about his music. One Gabriel is the period during his work as front man to…
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Leontyne Price *II 10 1927 — The Life You Give
Metropolitan Opera audiences began an extraordinary love affair with American soprano Leontyne Price immediately upon her debut on January 27, 1961. She was by then an internationally heralded singer and an experienced, refined musician and artist. But more than anything, it was the sheer beauty of her voice that excited her listeners. What they heard…
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Carole King *II 9 1942 — The Life You Give
Carole King, born Carol Joan Klein, on February 9 1942, in New York, New York, U.S.A., is the songwriter and singer (alto) who was one of the most prolific female musicians in the history of pop music. King’s mother was the source of her early music education. While still in high school, King began arranging…
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Gerhard Richter *II 9 1932 — The Live You Give
I am a simple man but for decades have understood my many privileges. Amongst many others, I have had the privilege of undergoing a second formative period, one with a level of intensity which has consistently allowed me to live life on a different plane than that of an average animal. Formative because well over…
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William S. Burroughs *II 5 1914 — The Life You Give
The elder statesman of literature’s Beat Generation — and, by extension, of the American underground culture — few figures outside of the musical sphere exerted a greater influence over rock & roll than novelist William S. Burroughs. A provocative, controversial figure famed for his unique cut-up prose aesthetic, Burroughs lived the rock lifestyle years before…
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Rosa Parks *II 4 1913 — The Life You Give / Virtuous in History (BHM)
Rosa Parks, born Rosa Louise McCauley, on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.A., is the civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. Born to parents James…
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Felix Mendelssohn *II 3 1809 — The Life You Give
Felix Mendelssohn, born Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, on February 3 1809, in Hamburg, Germany, is, as composer, pianist, musical conductor, and teacher, one of the most-celebrated figures of the early Romantic period. In his music Mendelssohn largely observed Classical models and practices while initiating key aspects of Romanticism—the artistic movement that exalted feeling and the…
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James Joyce *II 2 1882 — The Life You Give
James Joyce, born James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, on February 2, 1882, Dublin, Ireland, was the novelist noted for his experimental use of language and exploration of new literary methods in such large works of fiction as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). Early life Joyce, the eldest of 10 children in his family to survive…
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Jascha Heifetz *II 2 1901 — The Life You Give
Jascha Heifetz, born February 2 [Jan. 20, Old Style] 1901, in Vilna, Lithuania, Russian Empire [now Vilnius, Lithuania] was the Russian-born American violinist noted for his conscientious musical interpretation, his smooth tone, and his technical proficiency. His name became associated with musical perfection. Heifetz studied violin from age three and at six performed Felix Mendelssohn’s…
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Renata Tebaldi *II 1 1922 — The Life You Give
Renata Tebaldi, born February 1, 1922, in Pesaro, Italy, was an operatic soprano, a star at both Milan’s La Scala and New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. Tebaldi received her early musical training from her mother, a singer, and studied at the Parma Conservatory. At age 18 she sang for Carmen Melis, of the Arrigo Boito…
Sila Blume 