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