Born Today! 26.05.2025

Hans Georg Nägeli (26 May 1773 – 26 December 1836) was a composer and music publisher. Nägeli was born in Wetzikon, Switzerland. He studied under his father as a child and then opened a private music shop and publishing firm in the 1790s. In 1803 he began publishing the Repertoire des Clavecinistes, which included the first editions of keyboard pieces by composers such as Muzio Clementi, Johann Baptist Cramer, and Ludwig van Beethoven. He founded two singing societies (Sängervereine) in Zurich, in addition to writing profusely on music theory and aesthetics, as well as introductory treatises for students. He died in Zurich in 1836. Much of Nägeli's compositional output consists of keyboard works and songs. His "Gold'ne Abendsonne" (1815) was adapted by others for various purposes. One version of the tune, sung by a bird (feathered) on Today, was described by its presenters as a "Folk Song", but also appears in various music editions of the Metrical psalter (as the tune "Zurich"), where it is correctly attributed to Nägeli. Nowadays he is probably best known for the hymn (and psalm) tune Dennis.

Joseph Drechsler (26 May 1782 – 27 February 1852) was an Austrian organist, teacher, composer and conductor; in Vienna he was organist and choirmaster at several churches, and theatre conductor and composer of incidental music.

Arthur Coquard (26 May 1846 – 20 August 1910) was a French composer and music critic. He studied composition with César Franck, and was a music critic for Le Monde and L'Echo de Paris. He served as director of the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children) from 1891–99. Coquard completed Edouard Lalo's opera, La jacquerie (1895). He also wrote the opera Jahel (1899) and the comic opera La troupe Jolicoeur (1902). He won a prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts for his publication De la musique en France depuis Rameau. His most popular musical work was his setting of Haï Luli, which was included in several major anthologies of French songs.

Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg (Russian: Самуи́л Евге́ньевич Фе́йнберг, also Samuel; 26 May 1890 – 22 October 1962) was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.

Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens (; 26 May 1893 – 13 June 1962) was an English conductor and composer.

Eugen Kapp (26 May [O.S. 13 May] 1908 – 29 October 1996) was an Estonian composer and music educator. Characterized by simple harmonies, march rhythms and an appealing melodic style, his music is reflective upon the musical ideas favoured by the Stalinist regime of the 1940s and 1950s. He is best remembered today for his contribution to Russian opera. Born in Astrakhan, in the Astrakhan Governorate of the Russian Empire, Kapp was the son of Artur Kapp, also a composer and teacher. His first cousin was the composer, organist and music teacher Villem Kapp. Kapp studied under his father at the Tallinn Conservatory and graduated from there in 1931. Four years later he joined the adjunct faculty at the Conservatory where he taught music theory and composition. He won the Stalin Prize in 1946 for his opera Tasuleegid (‘Fire of Revenge’). In 1947 he was appointed a full professor at the Conservatory, acting as rector from 1952 to 1964. Several of Kapp's students, such as Eino Tamberg, went on to have successful careers. From 1948 to 1965, Kapp served as chairman of the Estonian Composers' Union. In 1950 he was awarded a Stalin Prize for another opera, Vabaduse laulik ("Bard of Freedom"), followed by a third prize in 1952 for the ballet Kalevipoeg. Kapp died in Tallinn, Estonia in 1996.

Joseph Horovitz (26 May 1926 – 9 February 2022) was an Austrian-born British composer and conductor best known for his 1970 pop cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, which achieved widespread popularity in schools. Horovitz also composed music for television, including the theme music for the Thames Television series Rumpole of the Bailey, and was a prolific composer of ballet, orchestral (including nine concertos), brass band, wind band and chamber music. He considered his fifth string quartet (1969) to be his best work.

William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973 until 2008. He is married to mezzo-soprano Joan Morris.

Nicola Piovani (born 26 May 1946) is an Italian classical musician, theater and film score composer. In 1998, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score for Roberto Benigni's film Life Is Beautiful (1997).