Born Today! 21.05.2024

Joseph Parry (21 May 1841 – 17 February 1903) was a Welsh composer and musician. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, he is best known as the composer of "Myfanwy" and the hymn tune "Aberystwyth". Parry was also the first Welshman to compose an opera; his composition, Blodwen, was the first opera in the Welsh language. Born into a large family, Parry left school to work in the local coal mines when he was nine years of age. He then went to work at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, where his father was also employed. In 1854 the family emigrated to the United States, settling at Danville, Pennsylvania, where Parry again found employment at an iron works. Though Parry had a great interest in music, he had no opportunity to study it until there was a temporary closure of the Rough and Ready Iron Works. Some of his co-workers were also musicians, and they offered music lessons while the iron works was closed. Parry joined a music sight-reading class taught by one of the men. He continued to study harmony with another co-worker, and learned how to read and write while he was learning about harmony. Parry soon began submitting compositions to eisteddfodau in Wales and the United States and winning awards. During a return visit to Wales for the National Eisteddfod at Llandudno, Parry was offered two music scholarships, but was unable to accept due to family obligations. A fund was established for the support of Parry and his family while he studied music. Parry went on to receive a doctorate in music from the University of Cambridge; he was the first Welshman to receive bachelor's and doctor's degrees in music from the University. He returned to Wales in 1874 to become the first professor of music at Aberystwyth University, later accepting a position at Cardiff University.

Joseph Parry (21 May 1841 – 17 February 1903) was a Welsh composer and musician. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, he is best known as the composer of "Myfanwy" and the hymn tune "Aberystwyth". Parry was also the first Welshman to compose an opera; his composition, Blodwen, was the first opera in the Welsh language. Born into a large family, Parry left school to work in the local coal mines when he was nine years of age. He then went to work at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, where his father was also employed. In 1854 the family emigrated to the United States, settling at Danville, Pennsylvania, where Parry again found employment at an iron works. Though Parry had a great interest in music, he had no opportunity to study it until there was a temporary closure of the Rough and Ready Iron Works. Some of his co-workers were also musicians, and they offered music lessons while the iron works was closed. Parry joined a music sight-reading class taught by one of the men. He continued to study harmony with another co-worker, and learned how to read and write while he was learning about harmony. Parry soon began submitting compositions to eisteddfodau in Wales and the United States and winning awards. During a return visit to Wales for the National Eisteddfod at Llandudno, Parry was offered two music scholarships, but was unable to accept due to family obligations. A fund was established for the support of Parry and his family while he studied music. Parry went on to receive a doctorate in music from the University of Cambridge; he was the first Welshman to receive bachelor's and doctor's degrees in music from the University. He returned to Wales in 1874 to become the first professor of music at Aberystwyth University, later accepting a position at Cardiff University.

Marie Joseph Léon Désiré Pâque (21 May 1867 – 20 November 1939) was a Belgian composer, organist and academic.

Pablo Luna Carné (May 21, 1879 Alhama de Aragón – January 28, 1942 Madrid) was a Spanish composer. His best-known composition is the aria "De España vengo" from the zarzuela El niño judío.

Joseph Beaulieu (21 May 1895 – 1 October 1965) was a Canadian composer, folklorist, and music educator. He traveled extensively throughout Canada collecting folk songs, which he compiled in several published books. As a composer, his works reflect his strong interest in folk music in there structure and melody. He wrote over 200 works, most of them folk-inspired songs or sacred songs. Also of note is his operetta Le Trésor du pauvre and his mass for four mixed voices, the Vatican II Mass, which was written for ceremonies held during the Second Vatican Council. A number of his pieces have been published by La Bonne Chanson and Thompson.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Ivanov (Russian: Константи́н Константи́нович Ивано́в; 8 May 1907–15 April 1984) was a Soviet conductor and composer.

Bror Axel (Lille Bror) Söderlundh (21 May 1912 – 23 August 1957) was a Swedish composer and singer. He composed music for many Swedish films. He also wrote classical music, including the Concertino for Oboe and Strings which has been performed by the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. He was born in 1912 in Kristinehamn. In 1929 he moved to Stockholm and studied violin. In 1940, he worked on the anti-nazi satire performance of Den ökända hästen från Troja (The Notorious Horse from Troy) with Karl Gerhard. He married ceramicist and textile artist Lisbet Jobs and they had two children, Michael Söderlundh and Stina Söderlundh.

Quddus Khojamyarov (Uyghur: Қуддус Хоҗамяров; also transliterated as Kuddus Kuzhamyarov; Russian: Куддус Ходжамьярович Кужамьяров; May 21, 1918 — April 8, 1994) was a Uyghur Soviet composer from Kazakhstan. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR. He is best known for his Muqam melodies, often composing in 12 muqams. Notable compositions include Nazugum, regarded as the first Uyghur opera, Zolotyegorye (The Golden Mountains) (1960) and his Taklimakan symphony.

Robert Parris (21 May 1924, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 5 December 1999, Washington, D. C.) was a composer and professor of music. He was born in Philadelphia, attended the University of Pennsylvania, then the Juilliard School in New York. Among his teachers were Otto Luening, Aaron Copland, Jacques Ibert, and Peter Mennin (although he always claimed that the effect of these teachers on his own composing technique was 'minimal'). After a year of study on a Fulbright Fellowship in Paris (where he was meant to study with Arthur Honegger, but hardly ever saw him), and a year teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, he settled in the Washington, D.C. area in 1952. Parris joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1963 where he taught theory and composition. Parris liked to describe himself as a 'colorist', and he therefore tended to write for small ensembles or a single instrument accompanied by piano or orchestra. His first international recognition came in 1958 with his Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, premiered by tympanist Fred Begun and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, under Howard Mitchell. Parris was notorious for pushing instruments to the limits of any player's abilities: his solo violin sonata is particularly difficult, and the composer-directors of CRI believed his trombone concerto to be unplayable until they heard a recording of it. But he was also the most inventive of orchestrators: Parris's concerto for kettledrums was always a crowd-pleaser in performance because it was so surprisingly melodic: its last movement is built around a traditional hymn (like Copland's Appalachian Spring) but Parris gives the initial statements of that hymn—and its dramatic summation—to the kettledrums. Begun, the NSO principal tympanist who premiered the piece, made the original suggestion for the piece, but he later remarked, ""I suggested five drums jestingly." In the sixties and seventies Parris was a sometime music critic for The Washington Post and the Washington Evening Star. In this period Parris—who taught himself Spanish—also turned to Borges for inspiration and produced the Book of Imaginary Beings (Part I) a work for flute (pic), violin, cello, piano, celeste, and percussion, from 1972. Part II was published in 1983. A revival of the Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, also in 1983, by the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich, was such a success that it resulted in new performances of his Concerto for Trombone (first performed in 1964) by the NSO in 1985 and, then, to Parris's largest commission. His Symphonic Variations, performed in 1988 to great acclaim, was the result. A retrospective concert of his works at The George Washington University in this same year led Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan to refer to Professor Parris as “one of (Washington’s) major music assets.”

António Victorino Goulart de Medeiros e Almeida (born 21 May 1940) is a Portuguese composer, music teacher, pianist and writer from Lisbon. He has also directed several films and television programmes about music. He is the father of actresses Maria de Medeiros and Inês de Medeiros and the violinist and composer Anne Victorino de Almeida.