Today's Birthdays

John Alden Carpenter(1876-1951)
Sergueï Bortkiewicz (1877 - 1952)
Guiomar Novaes (1895 - 1979)
Geraldine Farrar(1882-1967)
Roman Maciejewski (1910 - 1998)
George Malcolm (1917-1997)
Joseph Rouleau (1929)
Osmo Vänskä (1953)
Markus Stenz (1965)

and

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Stephen Spender (1909-1995)
Zero Mostel (1915-1977)
Frank Gehry (1929)
John Fahey (1939-2001)
Stephen Chatman (1950)
Daniel Handler (1970)

Plus birthdays for February 29th:

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957)
Reri Grist (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976)
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Elizabeth Welch (1904-2003)
Mirella Freni (1935)
Morten Lauridsen (1943)
Gidon Kremer (1947)
Frank-Peter Zimmermann (1956)

and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990)
Ralph Nadar (1934)
N. Scott Momaday (1934)

Today's Birthdays

Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944)
Emmy Destinn (1878-1930)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Witold Rowicki (1914-1989)
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (1928)
Lazar Berman (1930-2005)
Johnny Cash (1932-2005)
David Thomas (1943)
Guy Klucevsek (1947)
Emma Kirkby (1949)
Richard Wargo (1957)
Carlos Kalmar (1958)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Elisabeth George (1949)


and from the New Music Box:
On February 26, 1917, the Victor Company issues the earliest known jazz recording featuring the Livery Stable Blues and the Dixieland Jass Band One-Step performed by the Original Dixieland Jass (sic) Band.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Reicha (1770-1836)
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965)
Victor Silvester (1900-1978)
Michel Legrand (1932)
Davide Wilde (1935)
Jesús López-Cobos (1940)
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Denis O'Neill (1948)
Melinda Wagner (1957)

and

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Karl Friedrich May (1842–1874)
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)

And from the New Music Box:
On February 25, 1924, the first issue of the League of Composers Review was published. Under the editorial leadership of Minna Lederman, this publication—which soon thereafter changed its name to Modern Music (in April 1925)—was the leading journalistic voice for contemporary music in America for over 20 years and featured frequent contributions from important composers of the day including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, John Cage, Marc Blitzstein, Henry Cowell, Lehman Engel, and Marion Bauer. Its final issue appeared in the Fall of 1946.

More scribblings

I write reviews of Portland Opera productions for Opera Magazine, and I just received the January issue (they are a little late in mailing this time around) which contains my review of the September 24 productions of Pagliacci and Carmina Burana. In that issue, Angela Meade got a rave review from Michael Kennedy for her performance in title role Mercandate's "Virginia."

For The Columbian newspaper, I wrote about the Vancouver Symphony's All-Russian Concert, a preview of concerts in February, and an article about the Vancouver Big Band concert.

I've also been working on a number of entries for the second edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music (Oxford University Press). Actually, I've got 39 assignments. Almost half of them involve updating existing entries and the other half involve writing new entries. I just finished the pieces on Mark Applebaum and Mason Bates. I've also written articles about Robert Spano and Awadagin Pratt, and I've got more coming up like Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Neubauer, the Orion String Quartet, and Peter Oundjian. It's been really interesting to find out about these musicians and ensembles.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Boësset (1587-1643)
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940)
Michel Legrand (1932)
Renato Scotto (1934)
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946)

and

Wilhelm (Carl) Grimm (1786-1859)
Judith Butler (1956) )

Today's Birthdays

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952)
Albert Sammons (1886-1957)
Dave Apollon (1897-1972)
Martindale Sidwell (1916-1998)
Régine Crespin (1927-2007)

and

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) - blogger of the 17th Century
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)

Today's Birthdays

Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890)
York Bowen (1884-1961)
Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963)
George Zukerman (1927)
Steven Lubin (1942)
Lucy Shelton (1954)
Lowell Liebermann (1961)
Rolando Villazón (1972)

and

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
Edward Gorey (1925-2000)
Ishmael Reed (1938)
Terry Eagleton (1943)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
Leo Delibes (1836-1891)
Charles Marie Widor (1844-1945)
Kenneth Alford (1881-1945)
Nina Simone (1933-2003)
Elean Duran (1949)
Simon Holt (1948)

and

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)
W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Ha Jin (1956)
Chuck Palahniuk (1962)
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

Today's Birthdays

Charles‑Auguste de Bériot (1802-1870)
Mary Garden (1874-1967)
Robert McBride (1911-2007)
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
Christoph Eschenbach (1940)
Barry Wordsworth (1948)
Cindy McTee (1953)
Riccardo Chailly (1953)
Chris Thile (1981)

and

Russel Crouse (1893-1966)
Louis Kahn (1901-1974)
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Richard Matheson (1926)

And from the Writer's Almanac:
It was on this day in 1872 that the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened to the public in Manhattan. Its first home was rented space at 681 Fifth Avenue, in a building that had started off as a house and been remodeled by Allen Dodworth to serve as a dance academy.

Among the founders of the museum were its first president, John Taylor Johnston, a wealthy railroad tycoon who headed up the fundraising; and William T. Blodgett, who paid $116,000 to buy three collections of Flemish and Dutch paintings, and then turned them over to the museum. Blodgett was in Europe during the grand opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On February 22nd, Johnston sent Blodgett a letter about the openings — to the press and artists the evening of the 19th, and to the public on the 20th: "Personally I felt very apprehensive of the effect of inviting the disaffected artist element and the gentlemen of the Press, but it all worked very well. One party who came there with an artist told me afterwards that they halted for a moment before going in in front of the building, and the artist told him it was a 'd----d humbug, and' added he, 'I thought so too, but when we came out we thought very differently.' Our public reception on the 20th was an equal success. We had a fine turnout of ladies and gentlemen and all were highly pleased. The pictures looked splendid, and compliments were so plenty and strong that I was afraid the mouths of the Trustees would become chronically and permanently fixed in a broad grin."

The museum moved several times, eventually leasing land from the city on the east side of Central Park and building a permanent home there. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is now more than 2 million square feet and contains more than 2 million works of art.

Today's Birthdays

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Louis Aubert (1877-1968)
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Stan Kenton (1912-1979)
Timothy Moore (1922-2003)
George Guest (1924-2002)
Michael Kennedy (1926)
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988)
Smokey Robinson (1940)
Penelope Walmsley-Clark (1949)
Darryl Kubian (1966)

and

Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
Amy Tan (1952)
Siri Hustvedt (1955)

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (1655-1720)
Marchel Landowski (1915-1999)
Rolande Falcinelli (1920-2006)
Rita Gorr (1926)
Yoko Ono (1933)
Marek Janowski (1939)
Marlos Nobre (1939)
Donald Crockett (1951)

and

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957)
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
Toni Morrison (1931)

Today's Birthdays

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Sr. Edward German (1862-1936)
Andres Segovia (1893-1987)
Marian Anderson (1893-1993)
Ron Goodwin (1925-2003)
Fredrich Cerha (1926)
Lee Hoiby (1926)
Anner Bylsma (1944)
Karl Jenkins (1944)

and

Ronald Knox (1888-1957)
Jack Gilbert (1925)
Chaim Potok (1929-2002)

From the Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1904 that Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered in Milan, Italy, at Teatro alla Scala. Puccini had first been introduced to the story while he was in London for the premiere of his opera Tosca. There, he saw a one-act play called Madame Butterfly, written by the American playwright David Belasco. Belasco had based his play on a short story of the same name by John Luther Long, who claimed it was a true story told to him by relatives who were missionaries in Japan. Long was probably lying, though, because his story was very similar to a French novel called Madame Chrysanthème (1887) by Pierre Loti.

Even though Puccini had only a basic command of English, he was sure that Belasco's play had the makings of an opera. He wrote to his friend and publisher, Giulio Ricardo: "The more I think of Butterfly the more irresistibly am I attracted. Oh, if only I had it here, that I might set to work on it! I think instead of one act I could make two quite long ones: the first in North America and the second in Japan." He worked on the opera for four years, trying to improve on Belasco's plot and pacing, and consulting frequently with the wife of the Japanese ambassador for advice on names, music, and characters. In November of 1902, he wrote to Giulio: "The action must move forward to the close without interruption, rapid, effective, terrible! In arranging the opera in three acts I was making for certain disaster. You will see, dear Signor Giulio, that I am right."

So on this night the opera debuted, in two acts. Earlier in the day he wrote to his leading lady, the soprano Rosina Storchio: "My good wishes are superfluous! So true, so delicate, so moving is your great art that the public must succumb to it. And I hope that through you I am speeding to victory. Tonight then — with sure confidence and much affection, dear child."

But opening night was a disaster. The public hissed and yelled at the actors. Rosina Storchio was so distressed that she announced she would never sing the role of Butterfly again. Madama Butterfly closed after just one night, and Puccini wrote to Storchio: "And so, my Butterfly, the love-sick maiden, would leave me. You seem in your departure to be taking away the best, the most poetical part of my work. I think that Butterfly without Rosina Storchio becomes a thing without soul. What a shame! After so many anxious fears, after pouring out such riches of your keen and delicate intelligence, to receive the reward of brutality. What a disgrace it was! But I am sure that this horrible impression will soon be wiped out of our minds, and so, with warm affection and confidence in the future, I wish you good luck."

He spent the next few months rewriting the opera — he even changed his mind, again, and gave the opera three acts. It reopened at the Teatro Grande in Brescia on May 28th, 1904, with a new Buttefly, the Ukrainian soprano Salomea Kruszelnicka — otherwise, the cast was the same. This time, it was a huge success, with multiple encores, and Puccini was called on stage 10 times.

And from the New Music Box:

On February 17, 1927, a sold-out audience attends the world premiere of The King's Henchman. an opera with music by composer, music critic and future radio commentator Deems Taylor and libretto by poet Edna St. Villay Millay, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The New York Times review by Olin Downes on the front page the next morning hailed it as the "best American opera." The opera closed with a profit of $45,000 and ran for three consecutive seasons. It has not been revived since and has yet to be recorded commercially.

Today's Birthdays

Willem Kes (1856-1934)
Selim Palmgren (1878-1951)
Maria Korchinska (1895-1979)
Machito (1908-1984)
Sir Geraint Evans (1922-1992)
Eliahu Inbal (1936)
John Corigliano (1938)
Sigiswald Kuiljken (1944)

and

Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895)
Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963)
Richard Ford (1944)

Christopher Mattaliano mentioned in March edition of Harper's magazine

Christoher R. Beha's article about being a supernumerary in the New York City Opera's production of Esther last year. Portland Opera's general director, Christopher Mattaliano was the stage director for that production, and he is introduced in the article on page 54, and the article contains a number of quotes from his stage directions for that production.

Today's Birthdays

Jean‑François Lesueur (1760-1837)
Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789-1826)
Heinrich Engelhard Steinway (1797-1871)
Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935)
Walter Donaldson (1893-1947)
Georges Auric (1899-1983)
Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
Norma Procter (1928)
John Adams (1947)
Christopher Rouse (1949)
Kathryn Harries (1951)
Christian Lindberg (1958)

and

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Art Spiegelman (1948)
Matt Groening (1954)

Oregon Symphony continues onward and upward financially

In its most recent newsletter, the Oregon Symphony says that donations are up and the organization might be able to end the year in the black. Considering the economic struggles everywhere, this is a cheery note! Here's the verbiage from the newsletter:

Thanks to You … Your end-of-the-year gifts to the Oregon Symphony in December made a huge difference, keeping us right on track to qualify for a $1 million grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. Thanks to you, we raised more than $829,000 in the final weeks of 2010 (including 630 new gifts!) – nearly 8 percent more than last year. We're just below our halfway mark of $875,000 for the first six months of the year, but we are confident that with your continued support we will reach our goal by the end of our fiscal year June 30 and balance our budget for the second year in a row. Bravo! Thank you for supporting great music passionately played.

Today Birthdays

Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Alexander Dargomizhsky (1813-1869)
Jack Benny (1894-1974)
Wyn Morris (1929)
Steven Mackey (1956)
Renée Fleming (1959)

and

Frederick Douglass (1814-1895)

Today's Birthdays

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)
Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938)
Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938)
Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991)
Eileen Farrell (1920-2002)
Yfrah Neaman (1923-2003)
Colin Matthews (1946)
Peter Gabriel (1950)
Raymond Wojcik (1957)
Philippe Jaroussky (1978)

and

Ricardo Güiraldes (1886-1927)
Grant Wood (1891-1942)
Georges Simenon (1903-1989)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)
Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812)
Roy Harris (1898-1979)
Franco Zeffirelli (1923)
Mel Powell (1933-1998)
Paata Burchuladze (1951)

and

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

And courtesy of the New Music Box:

On February 12, 1924 at New York's Aeolian Hall, self-named 'King of Jazz' Paul Whiteman presented An Experiment in Modern Music, a concert combining "high art" and "hot jazz." The concert featured newly commissioned works from Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Edward MacDowell, Irving Berlin, Ferde Grofé, and Rudolf Friml, but the highlight of the program was the world premiere performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

A little bit of controversy can go a long way

Portland Opera has taken a gutsy stance by allowing patrons to comment on its current production of Turandot (click here to read the postings). Sometimes controversial productions help to stir up the pot and invigorate companies and audiences. I attended the opening of the Canadian Opera Company's new home in the fall of 2006 and experienced a very unsatisfactory (at least in my view) Ring cycle with really weird staging. However, the Canadian Opera Company has gone forward and reported successful finances every year since that opening. Ergo, a controversial production might turn out to be just the right spice for Portland Opera.

Today's Birthdays

Rudolf Firkušný (1912-1994)
Sir Alexander Gibson (1926-1995)
Michel Sénéchal (1927)
Cristopher Dearnley (1930-2000)
Jerome Lowenthal (1932)
Gene Vincent (1935-1971)
Edith Mathis (1938)
Alberto Lysy (1935)
Christine Cairns (1959)

and

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Pico Iyer (1957)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765)
Adelina Patti (1843-1919)
Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
Joyce Grenfell (1914-2001)
Cesare Siepi (1923)
Leontyne Price (1927)
Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004)
Roberta Flack (1937)
Barbara Kolb (1939)

and

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Today's Birthdays

Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Hildegard Behrens (1937)
Ryland Davies (1943)
Paul Hillier (1949)
Jay Reise 1950)
Marilyn Hill Smith (1952)
Amanda Roocroft (1966)

and

Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
James Stephens (1882-1950)
Brendan Behan (1923-1964)
J.M. (John Maxwell) Coetzee (1940)
Alice Walker (1944)

If Don Draper could sing: Opera Theater Oregon’s “Out of Eden” dishes out some bad candy with a highball chaser just in time for Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day (and week), Opera Theater Oregon invites you to cuddle up with your sweetie, a vodka gimlet and some candy cigs for a romantic evening at the cinema, circa 1955. The gimlet comes from the bar at the Alberta Rose Theatre - the cigs from the lovely, wandering cigarette girl, and the entertainment from another time.

"Out of Eden," OTO’s world premiere adaptation of Jules Massenet’s tragic opera ‘Werther’ (1887), mixes opera, archival news footage, projections, painted backdrops and original film of the on-stage performers to create a living 1950s Hollywood melodrama.

Think Lana Turner in soft focus...a window looking out on a painted scene of birch trees in winter...Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson...tortured love and pure gorgeousness.

"Out of Eden" tells the story of an American GI, missing in action, who returns home from the war to find his sweetheart in love with another man - - a man whose dark secret threatens to destroy them all.

The 15-piece Opera Theater Oregon Technicolor Orchestra, under the baton of OTO Musical Director Erica Melton, provides lush accompaniment for this tale of passion, treachery and lost innocence.

The story and new English libretto are by OTO Producing Artistic Director Katie Taylor

The opera runs just under 2 hours, including a 20-minute intermission.

“Out of Eden” is supported by a project grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council and Work for Art. Filming supported by a grant from the Autzen Foundation. Additional significant support provided by Portland State University School of Music and Sherman and Clay Pianos.

SUPPORT
“Out of Eden” is supported by a project grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council and Work for Art. Filming supported by a grant from the Autzen Foundation. Additional significant support provided by Portland State University School of Music and Sherman and Clay Pianos.

PERFORMANCES
February 11, 12, 14, 16, 17 and 19, 7:30pm at the Alberta Rose Theatre (minors OK when accompanied by a parent or guardian)

TICKETS
Available through Alberta Rose Theatre, http://albertarosetheatre.com, 503.427.8201

OUT OF EDEN
Book by Katie Taylor
Orchestral Arrangements by Erica Melton
Film Direction by Jennifer Wechsler
Technical Direction by Robin Greenwood

Starring...
Claire Craig-Sheets (the woman)
Deac Guidi (the man)
Daniel Buchanan (the snake)

and introducing...
Jennifer Davies as Sophie

Co-starring...
Kevin Walsh
Erik Hundtoft
Carlton Moe
Madison Howard
Megan Sandberg
and
Denna Good-Mojab

Today's Birthdays

Jacob Praetorius (1586-1651)
André Grétry (1741-1813)
Osian Ellis (1928)
John Williams (1932)
Elly Ameling (1933)
Gundula Janowitz (1937)
Margaret Brouwer (1940)
Stephen Roberts (1948)
Irvine Arditti (1953)

and

Jules Verne (1828-1905)
Kate Chopin (1850–1904)
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)

Today's Birthdays

Ossip Gabrilovich (1878-1936)
Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927)
Claudia Muzio (1889-1936)
Lord Harewood (1923)
Stuart Burrows (1933)
Wolfgang van Schweintz (1953)

and

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)
Gay Talese (1932)

The Julians to play out the battle of Vice, Virtue through Song

PORTLAND – Portland’s own vocal female classical crossover group The Julians will present an afternoon of tempting art, theater, and music culled from classical, musical theater, pop, and indie genres in “7 Deadly Sins” Sunday February 27th at 2 pm at First Presbyterian Church as part of the Celebration Works Series of Music & Art.

“7 Deadly Sins” features the pristine vocal stylings of The Julians, comprised of four of the Portland area’s loveliest female singers. The musical selections for “7 Deadly Sins” run the gamut from classical to pop to indie to musical theater and include works by composers such as Palestrina, Björk, Poulenc, ABBA, Alanis Morisette, Fleet Foxes, Tom Waits, William Brown, Elliott Smith, Libby Larsen, Stephen Sondheim, Bryan Free, Florence + the Machine, Feist, Brahms, Lily Allen and Leonard Cohen to name a few.

With the help of special guest performing artists Bryan Free, Erik Hundtoft and Jon Stuber, The Julians will delve into each sin through theatrical monologue, poetry and song. Art will also be a driving force of the show highlighted by new, original “Julians Inspired” artwork by local artist Julie Davis.

“Exploring the sinful nature of humanity through art, words and song has been an inspiring adventure.” says The Julians artistic director, Kristen Buhler. “This show invites the audience into our intimate living room where the struggle between vice and virtue will be examined through a unique multi-sensory and collaborative approach.”

ABOUT The Julians:
The Julians are four of Portland's finest singing women working together to explore, challenge, embrace, and sing the living daylights out of music that we love. The Julians are comprised of: sopranos Elizabeth Bacon, Maria Karlin and Mel Downie, and mezzo Kristen Buhler.

TICKETS: $12 (adults), $10 (students/seniors) available at the door. Free underground parking at SW 12th and Morrison. Cash/check accepted. More information is available at (971) 212-8034 or email: lizbacon@msn.com.

Today's Birthdays

Henry Litolff (1818-1891)
Karl Weigl (1881-1949)
Andre Marchal (1894-1980)
Claudio Arrau (1903-1991)
Stephen Albert (1941-1992)
Paul Esswood (1942)
Bob Marley (1945-1981)
Bruce J. Taub (1948)
Matthew Best (1957)
Sean Hickey (1970)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Eric Partridge (1894-1979)
Michael Pollan (1955)
Deborah Digges (1950-2009)

Portland Opera has almost sold out all seats to Ravel operas

I attended Portland Opera's Turandot on opening night (Friday), and the company's advertisement for its production of two Ravel operas (L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges) states that all of the shows are already sold out except for the show on April 5th. From this news, I'm guessing that Portland Opera may add a show, but that is just a guess.

Today's Birthdays

Ole Bull (1810-1880)
Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798)
Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943)
Jussi Björling (1911-1960)
Sir John Pritchard (1921-1989)
Luc Ferrari (1929-2005)
John Poole (1934)
Ivan Tcherepnin (1943-1998)
Josef Protschka (1944)
Phylis Bryn-Julson (1945)

and

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (1934)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Eustache du Caurroy (1549-1609)
Aristide Cavaillé‑Coll (1811-1899)
Erich Leinsdorf (1912-1993)
Jutta Hipp (1925-2003)
Martti Talvela (1935-1989)
François Dumeaux (1978)

and also

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
Betty Friedan (1921-2006)
Robert Coover (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986)
Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975)
Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
Helga Dernesch (1939)

and

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Georg Trakl (1887-1914)
Alvar Aalto (1898-1978)
Simone Weil (1909-1943)

Today's Birthdays

Louis Marchand (1669-1732)
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987)
Stan Getz (1927-1991)
Skip Battin (1934-2003)
Martina Arroyo (1937)
Sir Andrew Davis (1944)
Ursula Oppens (1944)
Eliane Aberdam (1964)

Also

James Joyce (1882-1941)
James Dickey (1923-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Victor Herbert (1859-1924)
Francesco Stradivari 1671-1743
Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768)
Victor Herbert (1859-1924)
Clara Butt (1872-1936)
Sándor Veress (1907-1999)
Renata Tebaldi (1922-2004)
Ursula Mamlok (1928)
Michael G. Shapiro (1951)

and

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
S. J. Perelman (1904-1979)
Galway Kinnell (1927)