Composers

Gustav Mahler was born 07 July 1860 in Bohemia though his family moved to Jihlava, Moravia (both are in modern day Czech Republic) that same year. He began a musical career quite early with piano lessons at age 6. He went on to study at the Vienna Conservatory at the age of 15 and 3 years later at Vienna University. His first composition was Das Klagende Lied, the Song of Lamentation.

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Renowned English Composer Gustav Theodore Holst was a well known music teacher for more then twenty years. His orchestral suite, The Planets is amongst his most popular achivements. Holst was a scholarly student at the Royal College of Music in London. He was inspired by Richard Strauss, Ravel, Grieg and Vaughan Williams who studied with him at the same college. Read more…

George Frederic Handel, who would become famous for his operas, concerti grossi and oratorios, was born in Halle (modern day Germany) on 23 February 1685. By the age of seven he was giving performances on harpsichord and the pipe organ and began composing at the age of nine. Read more…

Acclaimed English composer, Sir Edward William Elgar excelled in romantic composition. He was born on 2 June 1857. Few of his popular orchestral works consist of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches and the Enigma Variations from earlier days. Elgar has been a multitalented composer. He had composed chamber music, symphonies, oratorios and instrumental concertos. During his musical career he has also served as Master of the King’s Music in 1924. Read more…

Polish composer Frederic Chopin was born 1 March 1810. A virtuoso pianist and composer he is generally thought of as the greatest Polish composer in history. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Warsaw where his father taught French, being a French expatriate. Frederic began piano lessons at the age of six and at age seven was giving public concerts. Also at the age of seven he began his composing career with two polonaises, slow Polish dance songs, G Minor and B flat major which were nearly equal in level with compositions of leading Warsaw composers of the time.

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Prominent German composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany on May 7, 1833. He had composed most of his works during the romantic era. Later in his life, Brahms moved to Vienna, Austria. Brahm had inherited the taste for music from his father who was also a talented musician and could play number of instruments. Brahm’s father was responsible for teaching music to his son for the first time. At an young age of seven, he had started studying piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. From the early years, musical talents were evident in Brahms. Read more…

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany December 16, 1770 and began to learn music at the early age of four. By the age of eight he was studying the piano, organ and viola under various tutors including Christian Gottlob Neffe, the Court Organist in Bonn. Beethoven is said to have visited Vienna in 1787 to study under Mozart, though no one is certain as to why he did not study with him. He quickly returned home due to his mother’s failing health and her death in July 1787.

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Johann Sebastian Bach was born 21 March 1685 in Eisenach, located in modern day Germany into a family of prominent musicians. Yet his first composition was not musical but genealogical, entitled “Origin of the Musical Bach Family.” During his childhood he was instructed in the harpsichord, organ and violin. Unfortunately both his mother and father died within eight months of each other around his tenth birthday. This turn of events found him moving in with his oldest brother Johann Christoph and receiving instruction on clavichord as well as studying and performing music in general.

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American lyricist Lynn Ahrens was born 1 October 1948 in New York. She graduated from Syracuse University and later began work in television in the 1980’s but would find true acclaim in the 1990s on Broadway when she and long-time colleague Stephen Flaherty combined to write the music and lyrics for Once on this Island based on the novel by Rosa Guy, My Love My Love. The show opened in April 1990 and was on Broadway by mid-October of the same year. The show would receive eight Tony nominations including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. Read more…

American songwriter Harry Akst was born in New York City on 15 August, 1894. He would eventually turn out to be a pianist, accompanist and one of the most prolific composers of the time. He even performed as a pianist in vaudeville. Read more…