Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partnerLester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education. While there were other jazz singers with equal talent, Billie Holiday had a voice that captured the attention of her audience.
March 21, 1685 - July 28, 1750
Born in Germany
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, where his father was a town musician. Bach came from a long line of composers - over 300 years' worth of Bachs all worked as professional musicians. By the time Johann was 10, both his parents had died, so he was brought up by his older brother, who was a church organist. Johann became a very good organist, too.
Johann Sebastian Bach held three major jobs in his life: first he worked for a duke, then for a prince, and finally, he became director of music at the St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, Germany. Even though his job in Leipzig kept him very busy, in his spare time, Bach conducted a group of musicians who liked to get together to perform at a local coffee house. During his lifetime, people thought of Bach as just an ordinary working musician. No one really knew much about his music until 100 years after his death, when another composer, Felix Mendelssohn, conducted a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Bach is now seen as one of the greatest geniuses in music history. He wrote all kinds of music -- for organ and other keyboard instruments, orchestras, choirs, and concertos for many different instrumental combinations.
John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York. His father was a jazz percussionist, his brother Donald is a percussionist and conductor, and his brother Jerry is a studio percussionist as well.
In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied composition. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for The U.S. Air Force Band as part of his assignments. After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered The Juilliard School, where he studied piano. In a career spanning over six decades, Williams has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all save five of Spielberg's feature films. Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, and NBC Nightly News. He has composed numerous classical concerti and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments, and he served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor in 1980 to 1993). Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and 22 Grammy Awards. With 50 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams' score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. He will receive the 2016 AFI Life Achievement Award.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, where his father Leopold was a violinist and composer. Wolfgang (or Wolferl, as his family called him) was a child prodigy. He composed his first piece of music at age five; he had his first piece published when he was seven; and he wrote his first opera when he was twelve. By the time Wolfgang was 6, he was an excellent pianist and violinist. He and his sister Maria Anna (known as Nannerl) traveled all over Europe performing for royalty.
When he grew up, Mozart moved to Vienna, and tried to earn a living as a pianist and composer. But he had a lot of trouble handling the fact that he was no longer a child prodigy. Mozart was still a musical genius, but after he stopped being a cute kid, people stopped making a big fuss over him. Back then, musicians were treated like servants, but Mozart did not, and could not think of himself as a servant. Mozart was only 35 when he died. During his short life, he composed in all different musical forms, including operas, symphonies, concertos, masses, and chamber music. Today, he is still considered a genius!
John Phillip Sousa was an American bandmaster and composer. He was raised in America's capital, Washington, D.C. After attempting to join a circus band, Sousa's father enlisted him in the Marine Band instead. Sousa is known as "The March King" because he wrote 136 amazing marches. He also helped create an instrument known as the "Sousaphone" which is what tuba players march with.
Born October 9, 1835, died December 16th 1921. Camille Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy like Mozart. Before the age of three, he could pick out melodies on the piano. He composed his first piece before he turned four. At seven, he was giving public concerts and when he was ten, he could play any of Beethoven's 32 sonatas from memory. As an adult, Saint-Saëns was a conductor, critic, scholar, teacher, and composer. Although he was a very talented person several of his works never gained popularity. However, Camille Saint-Saëns is best known for his chamber music work known as The Carnival of the Animals. Click on the videos below to hear selections from The Carnival of the Animals and more! Click here to learn more about Saint-Saëns._
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If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music. |