Music
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Angela Gheorghiu *IX 7 1965 / The Life You Give
Angela Gheorghiu, born Angela Burlacu on September 7, 1965, in Adjud, Romania, is an operatic lyric soprano noted for her powerful voice and commanding stage presence. Gheorghiu early realized her love of singing, and she was supported by her family in working toward a career in opera. She left home at age 14 to study…
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Freddie Mercury *IX 5 1946 / The Life You Give
Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946, in Stone Town, Zanzibar [now in Tanzania], is the rock singer and songwriter whose flamboyant showmanship and powerfully agile vocals, most famously for the band Queen, made him one of rock’s most dynamic front men. Bulsara was born to Parsi parents who had emigrated from India…
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John Cage *IX 5 1912 / The Life You Give
John Cage, born John Milton Cage, Jr., September 5, 1912, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., is the avant-garde composer whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music. The son of an inventor, Cage briefly attended Pomona College and then traveled in Europe for a time. Returning to the United States in 1931, he…
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Giacomo Meyerbeer *IX 5 1791 — The Life You Give
Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer, September 5, 1791, in Tasdorf, near Berlin, Germany, is the opera composer who established in Paris a vogue for spectacular romantic opera. Born of a wealthy Jewish family, Meyerbeer studied composition in Berlin and later at Darmstadt, where he formed a friendship with C.M. von Weber. His early…
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Anton Bruckner *IX 4 1824 — The Life You Give
Anton Bruckner, born Josef Anton Bruckner, Sept. 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Austria, is the composer of a number of highly original and monumental symphonies. He was also an organist and teacher who composed much sacred and secular choral music. Bruckner was the son of a village schoolmaster and organist in Upper Austria. He showed talent…
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Engelbert Humperdinck *IX 1 1854 — The Life You Give
Engelbert Humperdinck, born September 1, 1854, in Siegburg, Prussia [Germany], is the composer known for his opera Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck studied at Cologne and at Munich. In 1879 a Mendelssohn scholarship enabled him to go to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner, who invited him to assist in the production of Parsifal at Bayreuth.…
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Itzhak Perlman *VIII 31 1945 — The Life You Give
Itzhak Perlman, born August 31, 1945, in Tel Aviv, Palestine [now Tel Aviv–Yafo, Israel]) is a violinist known for his brilliant virtuoso technique. His refinement of detail led many to regard him as one of the finest performers of the major violin repertoire of his time. Perlman was drawn to the violin after hearing it…
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Peter Maffay *VIII 30 1949 — The Life You Give
Peter Maffay was the best-selling German pop star of his generation, wielding his celebrity to become a powerful advocate for antiwar efforts and an outspoken critic of domestic abuse. Born Peter Alexander Makkay on August 30, 1949, in Brasov, Romania, he was 14 when his family relocated to his parents’ native Germany. Soon after, he…
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Charlie Parker *VIII 29 1920 — The Life You Give
Charlie Parker, born Charles Parker, Jr., also called Bird or Yardbird, on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.A., is the alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. Parker was the principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known as bebop, and—together with Louis Armstrong and Ornette…
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Hermann Nitsch *VIII 29 1938 — The Life You Give
Hermann Nitsch is an avant-garde painter, composer, and performance artist who worked in experimental and multimedia modes. He was a co-founder of the notorious art movement known as the Viennese Aktionists. With his project Orgien Mysterien Theater (“the Orgiastic Mystery Theater”), Nitsch immersed his audiences in scenes and symbols heavily charged with meaning: religious imagery,…
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Claude Debussy *VIII 22 1862 / The Life You Give
Claude Debussy, born Achille-Claude Debussy, on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, is the composer whose works were a seminal force in the music of the 20th century. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical structure that expressed in many respects the ideals to which the Impressionist and Symbolist painters and writers…
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Karlheinz Stockhausen *VIII 22 1928 / The Life You Give
Karlheinz Stockhausen, born Aug. 22, 1928, in Mödrath, near Cologne, Germany, is the composer, and important creator and theoretician of electronic and serial music who strongly influenced avant-garde composers from the 1950s through the ’80s. Stockhausen studied at the State Academy for Music in Cologne and the University of Cologne from 1947 to 1951. In…
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Lili Boulanger *VIII 21 1893 / The Life You Give
Lili Boulanger was born on August 21, 1893 in Paris, France, to a musical family. Her mother, father, and sister Nadia were all trained composers or performers. When her father, Ernest, was only 20, he won the Prix de Rome. This coveted prize, which provided a year’s study in Rome, was the greatest recognition a…
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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…
Sila Blume 