Born Today! 15.05.2024

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history. Born in Cremona, where he undertook his first musical studies and compositions, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua (c. 1590–1613) and then until his death in the Republic of Venice where he was maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters give insight into the life of a professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and politics. Much of Monteverdi's output, including many stage works, has been lost. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale religious works, such as his Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) of 1610, and three complete operas. His opera L'Orfeo (1607) is the earliest of the genre still widely performed; towards the end of his life he wrote works for Venice, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea. While he worked extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, as evidenced in his madrigals, he undertook great developments in form and melody, and began to employ the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque. No stranger to controversy, he defended his sometimes novel techniques as elements of a seconda pratica, contrasting with the more orthodox earlier style which he termed the prima pratica. Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the twentieth century. He is now established both as a significant influence in European musical history and as a composer whose works are regularly performed and recorded.

Franz Ignaz Danzi (15 June 1763 – 13 April 1826) was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi (1730–1798) and brother of the noted singer Franzeska Danzi. Danzi lived at a significant time in the history of European music. His career, spanning the transition from the late Classical to the early Romantic styles, coincided with the origin of much of the music that lives in our concert halls and is familiar to contemporary classical-music audiences. In his youth he knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom he revered; he was a contemporary of Ludwig van Beethoven, about whom he — like many of his generation — had strong but mixed feelings and he was a mentor for the young Carl Maria von Weber, whose music he respected and promoted.

Michael William Balfe (15 May 1808 – 20 October 1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas, especially The Bohemian Girl. After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed at least 29 operas, almost 250 songs, several cantatas and other works. He was also a noted conductor, directing Italian Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre for seven years, among other conducting posts.

Marie Emmanuel Augustin Savard (15 May 1861, Paris – 6 December 1942, Lyons) was a French composer. He was the son of Marie Gabriel Augustin Savard. He studied with Jules Massenet at the Conservatoire de Paris and in 1886, he won first prize in the Prix de Rome for an oratorio entitled La Vision de Saül. An opera, La Forêt (légende musicale en 2 actes), with a libretto by Laurent Tailhade (1854-1919) was published in 1910 (Enoch et cie., Paris). The music uses modal and whole-tone scales, as well as a great deal of chromaticism. From 1902 until his retirement in 1921, he directed the Lyon Conservatory.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (Russian: Николай Николаевич Черепнин; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1873 – 26 June 1945) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He conducted for the first Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Norbert Wolfgang Stephan Hann von Hannenheim (15 May 1898, Nagyszeben – 29 September 1945 in the Landeskrankenhaus Obrawalde near Międzyrzecz) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German composer. He is seen as one of the most brilliant later pupils of Arnold Schoenberg.

Giuseppe "Pippo" Barzizza (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈpippo barˈdziddza]; 15 May 1902 – 4 April 1994) was an Italian composer, arranger, conductor and music director. Giuseppe Barzizza, called Pippo, was born in Genova on 15 May 1902, and died in Sanremo on 4 April 1994. He became famous in the 1930s and 1940s, at the beginning with Blue Star Orchestra and then with Orchestra Cetra. He composed songs and film soundtracks. His treatise, "Barzizza's method" was printed in 1952. His basics and exercises "are so clear that's it's enough to read this little book to overcome any doubts or hesitation!” Franco Franchi said, "Barzizza was among the first to be interested in jazz music and swing and he became for many years, together with his friend and rival Cinico Angelini, a great example for his fellows, both for his extraordinary compositions and his skills to find out new talents and songs, and for his attempt to give a modern mark to Italian music".

Lars-Erik Vilner Larsson (15 May 1908 – 27 December 1986) was a Swedish composer, conductor, radio producer, and educator. He wrote three of the most popular works (each a suite) in Swedish art music: A Winter's Tale (En vintersaga; 1937–1938), the Pastoral Suite (Pastoralsvit; 1938), and God in Disguise (Förklädd gud; 1940). Other notable works by Larsson include three symphonies, a sinfonietta, and numerous concertante works.

Arthur Victor Berger (May 15, 1912 – October 7, 2003) was an American composer and music critic who has been described as a New Mannerist.

Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai (Russian: Андре́й Я́ковлевич Эшпа́й; 15 May 1925 – 8 November 2015) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1981.

Milan Kymlicka (Czech: Milan Kymlička; 15 May 1936 – 9 October 2008) was a Czechoslovak and Canadian arranger, composer and conductor. He was known for his composition of film and television scores, including those for the animated television series Rupert, Babar, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and The Adventures of Paddington Bear and the live-action television series Lassie and Little Men. He received a Genie Award in 1996 for his work on Margaret's Museum.

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music. Oldfield took up the guitar at age ten and left school in his teens to embark on a music career. From 1967 to 1970, he and his sister Sally Oldfield were a folk duo the Sallyangie, after which he performed with Kevin Ayers. In 1971, Oldfield started work on Tubular Bells which caught the attention of Richard Branson, who agreed to release it on his new label, Virgin Records. Its opening was used in the horror film The Exorcist and the album went on to sell over 2.7 million copies in the UK. Oldfield followed it with Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), and Incantations (1978), all of which feature longform and mostly instrumental pieces. In the late 1970s, Oldfield began to tour and release more commercial and song-based music, beginning with Platinum (1979), QE2 (1980), and Five Miles Out (1982). His most successful album of this period was Crises (1983), which features the worldwide hit single "Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly. After signing with WEA in the early 1990s, Oldfield's most significant album of the decade was Tubular Bells II (1992) and he experimented with virtual reality and gaming content with his MusicVR project. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. Oldfield's discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached the UK top-ten. His final album, Return to Ommadawn was released in 2017. Oldfield's label announced his retirement in 2023.

Ricky Ian Gordon (born May 15, 1956) is an American composer of art song, opera and musical theatre.

Rem Urasin (born 10 May 1976, in Kazan) is a Russian pianist. Rem Urasin began studying piano at the age of five under guidance from Marina Soukharenko at Special Music School, Kazan Conservatory. By the age of eight, Urasin was already performing with the Tatar Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and when he turned 13, played works by renowned Polish composer, Frédéric Chopin. From 1994 to 1999 he was trained at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Naumov. In 1995, Urasin was awarded 4th prize at the XIII International Chopin Piano Competition. He subsequently won the 2001 Monte-Carlo Music Masters competition and was second to John Chen at the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition. He also took part at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2005 and since 2000s performs with such venues as the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yekaterinburg Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna and Krakow Chamber Orchestras. He also collaborated with many musicians, among which were: Veronika Dudarova, Kazimierz Kord, Mischa Maisky, Fuat Mansurov, Mikhail Pletnev, Julian Rachlin, Alexander Rudin, Vladimir Spivakov, Nikolay Sivchuk and Antoni Wit. In 2009 and 2010, Urasin prepared the vast Chopin cycle 'The Complete Works in Eleven Concerts', to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth. He has performed every composition Chopin wrote.