Born Today! 05.09.2024

František Antonín Míča (also Micza or Mitscha; 2 September 1696 – 15 February 1744) was a Czech conductor, tenor singer and composer. Míča was born in Náměšť nad Oslavou. He conducted many opera performances for royal families. The most paramount example of his work is probably the opera O původu Jaroměřic (About the Origins of Jaroměřice), written in both Italian and Czech, in which he also sung the role of Gualtero. He died in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou. A symphony now believed to be by his nephew František Adam Míča was once attributed to him.

František Antonín Míča (also Micza or Mitscha; 2 September 1696 – 15 February 1744) was a Czech conductor, tenor singer and composer. Míča was born in Náměšť nad Oslavou. He conducted many opera performances for royal families. The most paramount example of his work is probably the opera O původu Jaroměřic (About the Origins of Jaroměřice), written in both Italian and Czech, in which he also sung the role of Gualtero. He died in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou. A symphony now believed to be by his nephew František Adam Míča was once attributed to him.

Jean-Benjamin François de la Borde (5 September 1734 – 22 July 1794) was a French composer, writer on music and fermier général (farm tax collector). Born into an aristocratic family, he studied violin under Antoine Dauvergne and composition under Jean-Philippe Rameau. From 1762 to 1774, he served at the court of Louis XV as premier valet de la chambre, losing his post on the death of the king. He wrote many operas, mostly comic, and a four-volume collection of songs for solo voice, Choix de chansons mises en musique illustrated by Jean-Michel Moreau. Many of the songs from the collection were later published individually through the efforts of the English folksong collector Lucy Etheldred Broadwood. His Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne was published in 1780. La Borde was guillotined during the French Revolution in 1794.

Johann Christian Bach (5 September 1735 – 1 January 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He received his early musical training from his father, and later from his half-brother, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin. After his time in Berlin he made his way to Italy to study with famous Padre Martini in Bologna. While in Italy, J.C. Bach was appointed as an organist at the Milan Cathedral. In 1762 he became a composer to the King’s Theatre in London where he wrote a number of successful Italian operas and became known as "The English Bach". He is responsible for the development of the sinfonia concertante form. He became one of the most influential figures of the classical period, influencing compositional styles of prolific musicians like Haydn and Mozart.

Luigi Bassi, Pesaro, 5 September 1766 – Dresden, 13 September 1825, was an Italian operatic baritone. When writing his Life of Rossini, Stendhal tells of the time in 1813 when he met Bassi in Dresden and spoke of "Mr Mozart;" Bassi said he was entranced that someone should still refer to him as "Mr" Mozart. The affection he felt for the great master was thus clear to the casual visitor, but can also be understood from the importance of the roles he gave Bassi towards the end of his life. At the age of just twenty, he sang the role of Count Almaviva at the Prague premiere of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, after which contemporaries said, Bassi is also a very skilful actor, who handles tragedy without being absurd, and comedy without lapses of taste. When he is in a mischievous mood he will, for instance, parody the faults of the other singers so exquisitely that only the audience, not the singers, are aware of it... He never spoils a part. The people of Prague were so happy with this performance of the opera composed by "Mozard" that they asked Domenico Guardasoni, impresario of the Prague National Theatre, to organise another opera. Guardasoni wrote to Da Ponte and work began on Don Giovanni. It was only natural that Bassi was called upon to sing again, and the role of Don Giovanni was written specially for him (with several joking references to the performance given the previous year). He did not like Finch'han dal vino, and asked Mozart to write another number where he could show off his vocal talents to the best; Mozart wrote Là ci darem la mano for Bassi, who is said to have forced five re-writes until he was satisfied. Bassi moved to Leipzig, and there he sang Papageno in the Magic Flute in 1793, but shortly afterwards his singing ability had deteriorated (although his acting ability was as great as ever). A newspaper article said of him: Bassi was an excellent singer before he lost his voice, and he still knows very well how to use what remains. It lies between tenor and bass, and though it sounds somewhat hollow, it is still very flexible, full and pleasant. Herr Bassi is furthermore a very skilled actor in tragedy with no trace of burlesque, and with no vulgarity or tastelessness in comedy. In his truly artful and droll way he can parody the faults of the other singers so subtly that only the audience notices and they themselves are unaware of it. His best roles are Axur, Don Giovanni, Teodoro, the Notary in La Molinara, the Count in Figaro, and others. Bassi moved to Prague, but the war forced him to seek protection from Prince Lobkowitz and he occasionally travelled to Vienna to sing. In 1814 he moved to Dresden, where he worked for the Italian company. He still sang Mozart roles, and he was popular with audiences, although his voice was beginning to fail. Until his death he would occasionally travel to Italy for singing engagements, but in later life only sang sacred works.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard that helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him a Europe-wide reputation, but it was Robert le diable (1831) which raised his status to great celebrity. His public career, lasting from then until his death, during which he remained a dominating figure in the world of opera, was summarized by his contemporary Hector Berlioz, who claimed that he 'has not only the luck to be talented, but the talent to be lucky.' He was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots (1836) and Le prophète (1849); his last opera (L'Africaine) was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the world's leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. At the same time as his successes in Paris, Meyerbeer, as a Prussian Court Kapellmeister (Director of Music) from 1832, and from 1843 as Prussian General Music Director, was also influential in opera in Berlin and throughout Germany. He was an early supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latter's opera Rienzi. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, and he wrote music for certain Prussian state occasions. Apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. The critical assaults of Wagner and his supporters, especially after Meyerbeer's death, led to a decline in the popularity of his works; his operas were suppressed by the Nazi regime in Germany, and were neglected by opera houses through most of the twentieth century. In the 21st century, however, the composer's major French grand operas have begun to reappear in the repertory of numerous European opera houses.

Louis Clapisson (15 September 1808 – 19 March 1866) was a French composer and violinist. He composed numerous art songs as well as 22 operas, largely in the opéra comique genre. In his later years he was a professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory and the curator of the conservatory's museum of musical instruments, many of which had come from his own large collection.

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. She was one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training, and one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for concerts she gave featuring her own music in the United States and in Germany.

Désiré Defauw (5 September 1885, Ghent, Belgium – 25 July 1960, Gary, Indiana, United States) was a Belgian conductor and violinist. Defauw was a pupil of the violinist Johan Smit (1862-1932) and gave his first London performances in 1910. During World War I he became a refugee working in London, founding the Allied Quartet with Charles Woodhouse (second violin), Lionel Tertis and Emile Doehaerd. In 1917 he appeared at the Steinway Hall on 26 June 1917 to perform the first British performance of Debussy's Violin Sonata with Joseph Jongen, about six weeks after the French premiere. The same year he also appeared at the Wigmore Hall performing John Ireland's Violin Sonata No. 2 with the composer at the piano. He was professor of conducting at the Brussels Conservatory and was the first conductor of the Orchestre National de Belgique from 1937. He left Belgium for North America in 1940 and was music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1941 to 1952 and also music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1943 to 1947. In 1947 he recorded the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the CSO and Mischa Elman as soloist. Defauw later served as music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1954 to 1958, retiring through ill-health. He was simultaneously the conductor of the Bloomington-Normal Symphony Orchestra (IL) from 1953 to 1958.

Ebbe Hamerik (5 September 1898 – 12 August 1951) was a Danish composer. Born in Frederiksberg, he was the son of composer Asger Hamerik. He died at the age of 52 in Kattegat when his sailboat sank and he drowned. Notable operas include Stepan (1922), Leonardo da Vinci: 4 Scener af hans Liv (1930), Marie Grubbe, inspired by the life of Marie Grubbe, (1940), Rejsekammeraten (eventyropera 1943) and Drømmerne (1949).

Joaquín María Nin-Culmell (5 September 1908 – 14 January 2004) was a Cuban-Spanish composer, internationally known concert pianist, and emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ralph Berkowitz (September 5, 1910 – August 2, 2011) was an American composer, classical musician, and painter.

John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives. Cage's teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text and decision-making tool, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, "Experimental Music", he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living". Cage's best known work is the 1952 composition 4′33″, a piece performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing but be present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is intended to be the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces. These include Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).

Peter Racine Fricker (5 September 1920 – 1 February 1990) was an English composer, among the first to establish his career entirely after the Second World War. He lived in the US for the last thirty years of his life. Fricker wrote over 160 works in all the main genres excepting opera. He was a descendant of the French playwright Racine.

Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar (5 September 1924,Lviv, now Ukraine – 27 September 2009, Kraków) was a Polish composer, music educator and pianist. She was born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), and after World War II studied at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków with Stanisław Wiechowicz for composition and Jan Hoffman for piano. After completing her studies, she took a position as professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków and also served as Rector from 1987 to 1993. She died in Kraków after an extended illness.

Piotr Lachert (5 September 1938 – 18 September 2018) was a Polish composer, pianist and teacher. Lachert lived and worked in Warsaw, Paris, Hannover, Brussels and in Pescara (Italy) and was a piano teacher in a conservatoire in Brussels, the Warsaw Music School and the Pescaran Academy of Music. Lachert directed numerous university masterclasses. Lachert composed more than 200 works including concertos, sonatas, chamber music, works for the musical theatre and didactic music.

Meriwether Lewis Spratlan Jr. (September 5, 1940 – February 9, 2023) was an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.

Eduardo Mata (5 September 1942 – 4 January 1995) was a Mexican conductor and composer.

Marc-André Hamelin, OC, OQ (born September 5, 1961) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer who has received 11 Grammy Award nominations. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.