Born Today! 29.06.2024

Antonio Sapienza (18 June 1794 – 1855) was an Italian composer and conductor. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire where he began his musical studies with his father who was also called Antonio. (Antonio Sapienza Sr. (1755–1829) had emigrated from Naples to Russia in 1783 and served as a musician and voice teacher at the Russian imperial court.) At the age of 28, Sapienza left Russia for Naples to continue his musical studies at the conservatory there with Giacomo Tritto, Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli and Pietro Generali, during which time he composed two Masses, several motets and a Salve regina. He remained in Italy for six years and composed three operas for the Neapolitan theatres which were well-received in their day. According to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, he was also one of the several composers who produced the dramatic cantata, La fondazione di Partenope, performed at the Teatro San Carlo on 12 January 1824 to celebrate the birthday of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Sapienza returned to St. Petersburg in 1828 where he served as choirmaster and conductor at the Imperial Theatre until his death in 1855.

Josef Paul Labor (29 June 1842 – 26 April 1924) was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced.

Ernest Fanelli (29 June 1860 – 24 November 1917) was a French composer who is known for his works which have been considered as precursing Impressionism. He gained renown when his symphonic poem Thèbes premiered in Paris; this was a work incorporating elements associated with music ahead of its time, such as unique harmonies, extended chords, and polytonality. Fanelli was born in Paris to Italian parents and started studying music at the age of 10. He earned a living playing timpani and piano, eventually composing seriously when he was 22, although he abandoned the activity in 1894. Upon applying to work as a copyist for Gabriel Pierné in 1912, his music—a manuscript of Thèbes, composed in 1883—astonished the latter, and a performance led to wide publicity and critical assessment of Fanelli's music and of the roots of the Impressionist style, especially that of Claude Debussy. Fanelli lived in poverty and struggled to support his family. He died in 1917 in Paris. His oeuvre includes orchestral works, 32 orchestrally-accompanied songs, a few chamber works and a three-act opera buffa. Most of his works are of long duration, which may have discouraged their performance, as may their modernism. Dark humor is a common theme in some compositions, and he often used full orchestras with a large brass section. George Antheil asserted that Fanelli was "one of the greatest inventors and musical iconclasts of all time" but bemoaned that he "discovered the nuclei of a new movement, but he failed to discover that movement itself".

Anton Beer-Walbrunn (29 June 1864 – 22 March 1929) was a German composer.

Joseph Carl Breil (29 June 1870 – 23 January 1926) was an American lyric tenor, stage director, composer and conductor. He was one of the earliest American composers to compose specific music for motion pictures. His first film was Les amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) starring Sarah Bernhardt. He later composed and arranged scores for several other early motion pictures, including such epics as D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), as well as scoring the preview version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925), a score that is now lost. His love theme for "Birth of a Nation", titled "The Perfect Song", was published by Chappell & Co. in an arrangement for voice and keyboard. It was later used as the theme for the radio show Amos 'n' Andy.

Curt Sachs (German: [zaks]; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Erich von Hornbostel.

Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 – 28 September 1958) was a Finnish composer. He was born in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, the son of Elise "Liisa" Häyrynen (1869-1949) and the famous romantic composer, professor Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924). His childhood he spent in Vilppula, Finland. He married Meri Grönmark in 1919. They had two daughters, Anna Marjatta Peltonen (née Merikanto) and Arma Kyllikki Tukia (née Merikanto). He later married Evi Sylvia Mähönen (1910-1968). They had two sons, Ukri Uolevi Merikanto (1950-2010), a sculptor and Pan Ylermi Merikanto (1951-2012). He is considered a key figure in early Finnish modernism (together with Väinö Raitio and Ernest Pingoud) and several of his works, most notably the opera Juha, have obtained posthumous attention. As professor of composition in the Sibelius Academy (1951–1958) Merikanto taught several Finnish composers of the next generation, including Einojuhani Rautavaara, Usko Meriläinen, Aulis Sallinen and Paavo Heininen. He studied music in Helsinki 1911, Leipzig 1912–1914 and Moscow 1916–1917. Merikanto's early style was rooted in Finnish romanticism, but in the 1920s he developed a personal, atonal but not dodecaphonic Modernist style. The reception of Merikanto's works of this period was mixed: the "Schott" Concerto for nine instruments was awarded in a competition organized by the German publishers Schott & Söhne, but his domestic Finnish audiences and critics were generally unenthusiastic and his opera Juha, today considered one of his major works, was never performed during Merikanto's lifetime. Disappointed with the reactions, starting in the early 1930s, Merikanto gradually abandoned his more radical style and turned towards a more traditional idiom based on Neoclassicism. He also destroyed or mutilated the scores of several works from his earlier style period, some of which were later reconstructed by his last composition student Paavo Heininen. His work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Merikanto was diagnosed with lung cancer in the summer 1957, and he died on 28 September the following year, in Helsinki, aged 65.

Ottmar Gerster (29 June 1897 in Braunfels, Germany – 31 August 1969 in Borsdorf) was a German viola player, conductor and composer who in 1948 became rector of the Liszt Music Academy in Weimar.

Friedrich Wührer (29 June 1900 – 27 December 1975) was an Austrian-German pianist and piano pedagogue. He was a close associate and advocate of composer Franz Schmidt, whose music he edited and, in the case of the works for left hand alone, revised for performance with two hands; he was also a champion of the Second Viennese School and other composers of the early 20th century. His recorded legacy, however, centers on German romantic literature, particularly the music of Franz Schubert.

Elena Nikolaidi (Greek: Έλενα Νικολαΐδη; June 15, 1909 – November 14, 2002) was a Greek-American opera singer and teacher. She sang leading mezzo-soprano roles with major opera companies worldwide and made numerous recordings. Her birth year is given as 1906 in some sources.

José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez." He produced some of the masterworks that best symbolize the essence of the national aspirations and contradictions of Mexico in the 20th century.

Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer. The son of a distinguished violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 19. Having managed to maintain a career in Czechoslovakia under the Nazi occupation, he refused to work under what he considered a "second tyranny" after the Communist Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, and took refuge in Britain. He became a Swiss citizen in 1967. Kubelík was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1950–53), musical director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden (1955–58). In 1957, he conducted and recorded the World premiere Berlioz's Les Troyens. From 1961 to 1979, he was music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and was a frequent guest conductor for leading orchestras in Europe and America. As a composer, Kubelík wrote in a neo-romantic idiom. His works include five operas, three symphonies, chamber music, choral works, and songs.

Chou Wen-chung (Chinese: 周文中; pinyin: Zhōu Wénzhōng; July 28, 1923 – October 25, 2019) was a Chinese American composer of contemporary classical music. He emigrated in 1946 to the United States and received his music training at the New England Conservatory and Columbia University. Chou is credited by Nicolas Slonimsky as one of the first Chinese composers who attempted to translate authentic East Asian melo-rhythms into the terms of modern Western music.

Michio Mamiya (Japanese: 間宮芳生; born June 29, 1929) is a Japanese composer. Born in Hokkaido, he studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts. His interest in Japanese folk music led him to compose several choral works incorporating traditional elements. He is particularly noted for his opera: his Narukami (1974) "won a grand prix at the Salzburg Opera Festival".

Vyacheslav Petrovich Artyomov (Russian: Вячесла́в Петро́вич Артё́мов; born on June 29, 1940, in Moscow) is a Russian and Soviet composer.