Born Today! 04.11.2024

Karel Komzák I (4 November 1823 – 19 March 1893) was a Bohemian composer, organist, bandmaster and conductor. He was the father of Karel Komzák II and the grandfather of Karel Komzák III.

Karl Tausig (sometimes "Carl"; born Karol Tausig; 4 November 1841 – 17 July 1871) was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer. He is generally regarded as Franz Liszt's most distinguished pupil and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Henri Charles Antoine Gaston Serpette (4 November 1846 – 3 November 1904) was a French composer, best known for his operettas. After winning the prestigious Prix de Rome as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he was expected to pursue a career in serious music. Instead, he turned to operetta, writing more than twenty full-length pieces between 1874 and 1900. He accepted some conducting work and also served as a critic and journalist for a number of French newspapers and magazines.

Olaus Andreas Grøndahl (4 November 1847 — 31 December 1923) was a Norwegian conductor, singing teacher and composer. The music journalist Cecilie Dahm described him as "... a central figure in Norway's choral movement". His best known work was Foran Sydens Kloster (Ung Magnus og Foran sydens kloster), a cantata for male choir. He also conducted the first performances of several choral works by Edvard Grieg.

István Thomán (Hungarian: [ˈiʃtvaːn ˈtomaːn]; 4 November 1862 – 22 September 1940) was a Hungarian piano virtuoso and music educator. He was a notable piano teacher, with students including Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi, Paul de Marky who later taught Oscar Peterson in Quebec, Gisela Selden-Goth, and Georges Cziffra. His six-volume Technique of Piano Playing is still in use today.

Herman Finck (4 November 1872 – 21 April 1939) was a British composer and conductor of Dutch extraction. Born Hermann Van Der Vinck in London, he began his studies training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established a career as the musical director at the Palace Theatre in London (from 1900 until 1920), with whose orchestra he made many virtuoso recordings. During these decades, he was also a principal conductor at the Queen's Theatre, at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and at Southport. Finck was a prolific composer throughout the 1910s and 1920s. He composed around thirty theatre shows of most types - operettas (such as Decameron Nights), ballets (like My Lady Dragon Fly), incidental music, revues (annual revues Round the Map and The Passing Show were especially popular), plus songs, "mood music" for the silent cinema and many light orchestral pieces - suites such as Vive La Danse and Marie Antoinette, marches such as Pageant March, Guards Parade March, Splendour and Victory and the individual genre movements Dancing Daffodils, Dignity and Impudence, Land of Roses, Penguin Parade and Queen of the Flowers. Finck also conducted the first record album ever made (in 1909) of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. The Palace Theatre was famous not only for its orchestra, but also for the beautiful Palace Girls, who had many dances composed by Finck in their honour. In 1911 the Palace Girls performed a song and dance number, which was originally called "Tonight", but became hugely popular as a romantic instrumental piece "In The Shadows". This is the most enduring composition of Finck, largely because "In The Shadows" was one of the last numbers played on the Titanic and has thus made its way into several Titanic-collections. Another popular song, during the World War I was "Gilbert the Filbert" (also called "The K-Nuts"). It was performed in The Passing Show of 1914 by the popular Basil Hallam, who became Captain B. H. Radford and died in 1916 when his parachute failed to open. Finck also conducted the first London stage production of Show Boat, in 1928. This was the first production of Show Boat to include Paul Robeson in its cast. His illustrated autobiography, "My melodious memories" was published in 1937. The Divine Art Recordings Group (UK and USA) released on its Diversions label, in February 2012, the first CD album dedicated to the music of Herman Finck, performed by the orchestra and principals of the Bel-Etage Theatre from Estonia, conducted by Mart Sander. In addition to Finck's most popular tunes "Gilbert the Filbert" and "In The Shadows" (vocal version), this CD also includes several popular dances, patriotic World War I songs and hits from the revues and musicals, as well as two full orchestral suites - My Lady Dragonfly and the magnificently symphonic Decameron Nights, which had not had a revival since 1923. In 2012, Divine Music CD label released The Finck Album, the first modern recording of Finck's music, performed by the principals and orchestra of the Bel-Etage Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia, conducted by Mart Sander.

Gena Branscombe (4 November 1881 – 26 July 1977) was a Canadian pianist, composer, music educator and choir conductor who lived and worked in the United States.

Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (4 November 1897 – 27 August 1948) was a Brazilian composer of Spanish descent. He was born and died in Rio de Janeiro.

Joan Dotras i Vila (4 November 1900, in Barcelona – 15 July 1978, in Canet de Mar, Spanish: Juan Dotras Vila) was a Catalan composer and pedagogue. He was best known as a zarzuela composer. He taught at the Escuela Municipal de Música and the Liceo in Barcelona.

Siegfried Borris (born Siegfried Jakob Boris Zuckermann; 4 November 1906 – 23 August 1987) was a German composer, musicologist and music educator. He became a lecturer at the Musikhochschule Berlin in 1929, but his career was interrupted during the Nazi regime. He was appointed professor in 1945 and became an influential pedagogue, composer of music for young players, and active in music organisations. He was president of national associations, of Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband from 1963 to 1972, and of Deutscher Musikrat from 1971 to 1976.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including five string quartets and many instrumental sonatas, much of which is only now becoming accessible through modern recordings. Cooke also composed two operas (still unperformed), six symphonies and several concertos.

Vadim Nikolayevich Salmanov (4 November 1912, in Saint Petersburg – 27 February 1978, in Leningrad) was a Soviet composer and pedagogue. Salmanov learned to play the piano as a child from his father who was a professional metallurgical engineer. Exposed to composers from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, Salmanov quickly grew fond of music and was quickly enrolled in music theory courses at the age of six. However, following the passing Salmanov's father, he went to work at a factory and soon became interested in the topic of hydrogeology. At 18, he was about to attend the Leningrad Conservatory when he decided to study hydrogeology instead, eventually working as a geologist until 1935 when he finally decided to attend the Conservatory where he studied composition with Mikhail Gnesin following his attendance at a piano concert by Soviet pianist Emil Gilels. After graduating, he worked as a composer until the onset of World War II, when he enlisted in the Soviet Army and served from 1941 to 1945. After the war, he returned to his pedagogical work, teaching at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1946 to 1951, as well as creative work and began to set poems by Blok and Yesenin relating to the war. Later on in his life, Salmanov set poems by Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda as well as by Soviet poets. Salmanov's Symphony No. 1 in D minor was written in 1952 and dedicated to the conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, who would go on to record all of four of Salmanov's symphonies. The work uses Slavic folk melodies and a motto theme heard at the beginning of the first movement recurs in the Finale. His Symphony No. 4 was likewise dedicated to Mravinsky. He also taught at the Leningrad Conservatory, his alma mater.

Elgar Howarth (born 4 November 1935), is an English conductor, composer and trumpeter.

Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is a Soviet-born Australian composer and pianist, best known for her ballet Wild Swans.

Daron Aric Hagen ( HAH-gən; born November 4, 1961) is an American composer, writer, and filmmaker.