Musician's Birthdays December 13-19

December 13 - Johann Andreas Streicher (1761) German piano maker; Josef Lhévinne (1874) Russian pianist; Carlos Montoya (1903) Spanish flemenco guitarist;

December 14 - "Spike" Jones (1911) American bandleader of satiric music; Rosalyn Tureck (1914) American pianist and harpsichordist; Christopher Parkening (1942) American guitarist

December 15 - John Hammond (1910) American jazz critic; Alan Freed (1922) American disc jockey; Dave Clark (1942) British rock drummer and singer

December 16 - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770) German composer; Zoltán Kodaly (1882) Hungarian composer and collector of folk songs; Sir Noel Coward (1899) British composer of musical comedies, actor and producer

December 17 - Dominico Cimarosa (1749) Italian composer; Arthur Fiedler (1894) American violinist and conductor; Paul Butterfield (1942) American Blues singer and harmonica player

December 18 - Edward MacDowell (1860) American composer and pianist; Anita O'Day (1919) American jazz singer; Keith Richards (1943) British rock singer and guitarist

December 19 - Fritz Reiner (1888) Hungarian-born American conductor; Edith Piaf (1915) French chanteuse and songwriter; Phil Ochs (1940) American fold singer, songwriter and guitarist

On his deathbed Beethoven stated,
Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.

Musician's Birthdays - December 6-12

• December 6 - Ira Gershwin (1896) American librettist and lyricist; Dave Brubeck (1920) American jazz pianist and composer; Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929) German conductor, cellist and musicologist

• December 7 - Pietro Mascagni (1863) Italian composer and conductor; Ernst Toch (1887) Austrian-born American composer; Harry Chapin (1942) American folk-rock singer and songwriter

• December 8 - Jean Sibelius (1865) Finnish composer; Sammy Davis Jr. (1925) American singer of popular music; James Galway (1939) Irish flutist

• December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915) German soprano; Tatiana Troyanos (1938) American mezzo-soprano; Joan Armatrading (1950) British rock singer and song writer

• December 10 - Cesar Frank (1822) Belgian composer and organist; Olivier Messiaen (1908) French composer; Morton Gould (1913) American composer, conductor and pianist

• December 11 - Hector Berlioz (1803) French composer, conductor and music critic; Elliot Cook Carter, Jr. (1908) American composer; Brenda Lee (1944) American singer of popular music

• December 12 - Frank Sinatra (1915) American actor and singer of popular music; Dionne Warwick (1941) American singer of popular music; Grover Washington, Jr. (1943) American saxophonist

Musician's Birthdays November 29-December 5

• November 29 - Gaetano Donizetti (1797) Italian composer; Billy Strayhorn (1915) American jazz composer, lyricist and pianist; Chuck Mangione (1940) American jazz musician and composer

• November 30 - Brownie McGhee (1915) American jazz singer and guitarist; Paul Stookey (1937) American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist; Radu Lupu (1945) Rumanian pianist

• December 1 - Mary Martin (1913) American singer and actress, primarily for the musical theater; Lou Rawls (1936) American singer of popular music; Bette Midler (1945) American pop-rock singer and actress

• December 2 - Robert Kajanus (1856) Finnish conductor and composer; Sir John Barbirolli (1899) British conductor and cellist; Jörg Demus (1928) Austrian pianist

• December 3 - Nicola Amati (1596) Italian violin maker, teacher of Guarneri and Stradivari; Anton Webern (1883) Austrian composer and conductor; Maria Callas (1923) American soprano

• December 4 - André Campra (1660) French composer; Yvonne Minton (1938) Australian mezzo-soprano; Dennis Wilson (1944) American rock-and-roll singer and drummer

• December 5 - Francesco Geminiani (1687) Italian violinist, writer and composer; José Carreras (1946) Spanish tenor; Jim Messina (1947) American rock guitarist and singer

Musician's Birthdays November 22-28

November 22 - Hoagy Carmichael (1899) American jazz pianist and songwriter; Benjamin Britten (1913) British composer; Gunther Schuller (1925) American composer, conductor, French-horn player and educator.

November 23 - Manuel de Falla (1876) Spanish composer and conductor; Jerry Bock (1928) American songwriter for the musical theater; Krzysztof Penderecki (1933) Polish comoser.

November 24 - Lilli Lehmann (1848) German soprano; Scott Joplin (1868) American ragtime composer and pianist; Alfred Schnittke (1934) Soviet composer.

November 25 - Giuseppe Guarneri (1666) Italian violin maker; Virgil Thomson (1896) American composer, conductor and music critic; Paul Desmond (1924) American jazz alto saxophonist and composer.

November 26 - Eugene Istomin (1925) American pianist; Alan Stout (1932) American composer; Tina Turner (1938) American soul-rock singer.

November 27 - Sir Julius Benedict (1804) German-born English conductor and composer; Charles Koechlin (1867) French composer; Jimi Hendrix (1942) American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

November 28 - Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632) Italian-born French composer and conductor; Anton Rubinstein (1829) Russian composer and pianist; Randy Newman (1943) American pop-rock songwriter, singer and pianist.

Birthdays November 15-21

A few of the Musical Birthdays the week of November 15-21.

Petula Clark (1932) British pop singer; Daniel Barenboim (1942) Argentine-born pianist and conductor; W. C. Handy (1873) American Blues composer and band leader; Paul Hindemith (1895) German-born American composer and conductor; Lawrence Tibbett (1896) American baritone; Gorden Lightfoot (1938) Canadian folk singer, guitarist and songwriter; Carl Maria von Weber (1786) German composer, conductor and pianist; Sir William Gilbert (1836) British author and librettist, best known for his comic operettas written with Sullivan; Eugene Ormandy (1899) Hungarian-born American conductor; Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859) Russian composer and conductor; Tommy Dorsey (1905) American trombonist and band leader

This Week's Birthdays

Today, November 10 we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther (1483) and François Couperin (1668) French composer and organist. Also this week includes the birthdays of Ernest Ansermet (1883) Swiss conductor, Alexander Borodin (1833) Russian composer, Lucia Popp (1939) Czech soprano, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778) German pianist and composer, and Aaron Copland (1900) American composer and conductor.

Happy Birthday, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Today we celebrate the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, October 12, 1872. He was one of the most influential English composers of the 20th century and has often been called the finest British composer since Purcell (1659-1695.) This week we will sing his beloved O How Amiable. Yesterday's Collect of the Day contained the following: "Prosper now the work of our hands..." from Psalm 90, which is also included in O How Amiable.