Birthdays, March 28-April 3

• March 28 - Rudolf Serkin, 1903 (Austrian pianist); Robert Ashley, 1930 (American composer); Samuel Ramey, 1942 (American bass)
• March 29 - Sir William Walton, 1902 (British composer); Pearl Bailey, 1918 (American jazz singer); Richard Rodney Bennett, 1938 (British composer)
• March 30 - Sergei Vasilenko, 1872 (Russian composer); Gordon Mumma, 1935 (American composer of experimental music); Eric Clapton, 1945 (British rock guitarist and singer)
• March 31 - Franz Josef Haydn, 1732 (Austrian composer); Sergei Diaghilev, 1872 (Russian impressario; founder of the Ballets Russe); Herb Alpert, 1935 (American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer)
• April 1 - Ferruccio Busoni, 1866 (Italian pianist and composer); Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1873 (Russian-born American composer and pianist); Alberta Hunter, 1895 (American blues singer)
• April 2 - Kurt Herbert Adler, 1905 (Austrian-born American conductor and opera director); Marvin Gaye, 1939 (American soul singer and songwriter); Leon Russell, 1941 (American rock singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist)
• April 3 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, 1895 (Italian-born American composer); Wayne Newton, 1942 (American singer of popular music); Garrick Ohlsson, 1948 (American pianist)
  

Birthdays March 21-27

I have failed to list musician's birthdays for several weeks. This week, however, we celebrate several outstanding musicians' births which I wish to acknowledge.

• March 21 - Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), Modest Mussorgsky (1839)
• March 22 - Stephen Sondheim (1930), Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948)
• March 23 - Régine Crespin (1927)
• March 24 - Byron Janis (1928)
• March 25 - Arturo Toscanini (1867), Béla Bartók (1881), Aretha Franklin (1942)
• March 26 - Pierre Boulez (1925), Dianna Ross (1944), Teddy Pendergrass (1950)
• March 27 - Vincent d'Indy (1851), Sarah Vaughan (1924), Mstislav Rostropovich (1927)