Born Today! 08.02.2024

Giuseppe Felice Tosi (28 February 1619 – before 14 December 1693) was an Italian composer and organist, and the father of Pier Francesco Tosi, also a successful composer. Tosi was born and died at Bologna. He started out as a singer and only started composing in his late fifties. He was among the paid musicians in San Petronio, Bologna, from 1636 to 1641, which possibly means that he received his musical education there. He was a founding member of the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica in 1666 and was elected its conductor in 1679. His first musical work was the opera Il Celindo which, although composed in 1674, premiered in 1677. He composed a Dixit Dominus for the annual celebration of the academy in San Giovanni in Monte on 4 July 1675. From 1680 to 1683 he was maestro di cappella of the Accademia della Morte, Ferrara, and in 1682–1683 of Ferrara Cathedral as well. In 1686 he served temporarily as maestro di cappella of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. From 7 July 1692 until early December 1693 he was second organist at San Petronio. In addition to several operas, Tosi composed sacred music in the typical late 17th-century Bolognese style.

Pasquale Cafaro (also known as Caffaro or Cafariello, 8 February 1715 or 1716 – 25 October 1787) was an Italian composer who was particularly known for his operas and the significant amount of sacred music he produced, including oratorios, motets, and masses.Born in San Pietro, Galatina, Cafaro entered the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples in December 1735 where he was a pupil of Lorenzo Fago and Leonardo Leo. He remained in Naples for the rest of his life and taught at the conservatorio from 1759 until 1785. His most famous pupil was Giacomo Tritto.In 1771, he succeeded Giuseppe de Majo as maestro di cappella of the Chapel Royal of Naples. Among his operatic works are Disfatta di Dario and L'Olimpiade. Cafaro died in Naples, aged 71 or 72 years.

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (French: [gʁɛtʁi]; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques.

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (French: [gʁɛtʁi]; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques.

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (French: [gʁɛtʁi]; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques.

Joseph Leopold Eybler (8 February 1765 – 24 July 1846) was an Austrian composer and contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Joseph Leopold Eybler (8 February 1765 – 24 July 1846) was an Austrian composer and contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

August Joseph Norbert Burgmüller (8 February 1810 – 7 May 1836) was a distinguished German composer, renowned for his contributions during the nascent stages of the Romantic Era. His oeuvre, albeit cut tragically short due to his untimely drowning at the age of 26, continues to resonate in the annals of classical music.

Charles Casimir Manry (8 February 1823 – 18 January 1866) was a French composer and choral conductor.

Antonio Cagnoni (8 February 1828 – 30 April 1896) was an Italian composer. Primarily known for his twenty operas, his work is characterized by his use of leitmotifs and moderately dissonant harmonies. In addition to writing music for the stage, he composed a modest amount of sacred music, most notably a Requiem in 1888. He also contributed the third movement, Quid sum miser, to the Messa per Rossini, a collaborative work created by thirteen composers to honor Gioacchino Rossini.

Vincenzo Michetti (1878 in Pesaro – 1956 in Pesaro) was an Italian composer.

Barbara Stella Hesse-Bukowska (8 February 1930 – 9 December 2013) was a Polish pianist. Her family had a long-standing musical history, as her father was a violinist and conductor, her mother was a pianist and teacher, and her grandfather was a piano tuner. Her mother was her first teacher. Her subsequent teachers included Czesław Aniołkiewicz and, at the Warsaw Conservatory, Maria Glińska-Wąsowska.

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinema history. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is most known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has received numerous accolades including 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category, at 91 years old.Williams' early work as a film composer include Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images (1972) and The Long Goodbye (1973). He has collaborated with Spielberg since his 1974 film The Sugarland Express, composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler's List (1993). Other memorable collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also scored Superman (1978), the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004). Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 and is its laureate conductor. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams announced but then rescinded his intention to retire from film score composing after the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023.In 2022, Williams was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, "for services to film music". He has received numerous honors including the Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, the National Medal of the Arts in 2009, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998, the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He has composed the score for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time. The Library of Congress entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Diana Arismendi (born November 8, 1962) is a Venezuelan composer.

Inés Medina-Fernández (born February 8, 1974 in Madrid, Spain) is a pianist and composer of contemporary classical music. She began playing piano at the age of 8, completing examinations at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. An experienced pianist and self-taught composer, her compositions draw upon many influences - from Baroque to John Cage, to film and documentary music, for example. She explores composition for a variety of instruments, and has composed not only for piano but also for horn and classical guitar. Her love of film music has led to collaborations with producers and directors. Medina-Fernández also enjoys working with musicians interested in premiering her pieces. Medina-Fernández' music is difficult to define. It is multi-layered and uses tones and patterns in creative and original structures, hinting at medieval and baroque although clearly contemporary.