Born Today! 17.07.2025

Luigi Agnesi (17 July 1833 – 2 February 1875) was a Belgian operatic bass-baritone, conductor and composer.

Johan August Söderman (17 July 1832 – 10 February 1876) was a Swedish composer. He was born and died in Stockholm, and has traditionally been seen as the pre-eminent Swedish composer of the Romantic generation, known especially for his lieder and choral works, based on folk material, and for his theatre music, such as the incidental music to Ludvig Josephson's Marsk Stigs döttrar ("Marshal Stig's Daughter"), 1866, or his Svenskt festspel ("Swedish Festival Music").

Ludvík Vítězslav Čelanský () (17 July 1870 in Vienna – 27 October 1931 in Prague) was a Czech conductor and composer. He was founder and first principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 1875 – 10 July 1940) was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist. He had been best known for his Essays in Musical Analysis and his editions of works by Bach and Beethoven, but since the 1990s his compositions (relatively small in number but substantial in musical content) have been recorded and performed with increasing frequency. The recordings have mostly been well received by reviewers.

Vittorio Gnecchi (1876–1954) was an Italian composer.

Salvatore Allegra (13 July 1898, Palermo, Italy – 9 December 1993, Florence, Italy) was an Italian composer. Allegra was born in Palermo. He composed a number of operettas in the 1920s, including Il gatto in cantina (1930), which is still performed sometimes, passing then to operas, such as the dark "verista" drama Ave Maria, which was first staged at La Scala in 1934, which was followed by I Viandanti (1936), Il Medico suo malgrado (1938) and Romulus (1952). He completed and edited some last works of the late Ruggero Leoncavallo, including the one-act opera Edipo Re (1920) and the operetta Le maschere nude (1925). After the war he composed a number of musical scores for films, among which Amori e veleni (1950) with Amedeo Nazzari and directed by Giorgio Simonelli. He died in Florence.

Kristo Kono (17 July 1907 – 22 January 1991) was an Albanian composer and recipient of the People's Artist title in 1961, the highest artistic recognition title during the communist era. He was one of the early contributors to Albanian music and opera who spent all his life in their service; one of the symbols of the cultural traditions of his hometown of Korçë, same as other musicians as Tefta Tashko-Koço, Jorgjia Truja, and Kristaq Antoniu; and one of the main personalities of the early generation of Albanian composers together with Nikolla Zoraqi, Tish Daija, Tonin Harapi, and Feim Ibrahimi.

Toshimitsu Tanaka (田中 利光, Tanaka Toshimitsu; 17 July 1930 – 30 July 2020) was a Japanese composer from Aomori, Aomori. He graduated from Kunitachi College of Music with a major in composition. His "Two Movements for Marimba", composed in 1965, was awarded the Encouraging Prize of the National Arts Festival for the Centennial Anniversary of the Meiji Period (1968), and the Supreme Prize of the National Arts Festival in 1969. The piece was recorded by Evelyn Glennie in April 1990 for her 1991 album release Light in Darkness. His music is typical of the Japanese marimba repertoire. Tanaka was a professor of Composition Department at Kunitachi College of Music as well as Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts.

Wojciech Kilar (Polish: [ˈvɔjt͡ɕɛx ˈkʲilar]; 17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013) was a Polish classical and film music composer. One of his greatest successes came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992, which received the ASCAP Award and the nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Music. In 2003, he won the César Award for Best Film Music written for The Pianist, for which he also received a BAFTA nomination. In 2012, he became the recipient of Poland's highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle.

Niccolò Castiglioni (17 July 1932 – 7 September 1996) was an Italian composer, pianist, and writer on music. Castiglioni was born and raised in Milan, where he began studying piano at the age of 7. He received his performer's diploma from the Milan Conservatory in 1952, and graduated there in composition in 1953. His student compositions were marked by Stravinsky's neo-classicism, but after graduation his style changed under the influence of the Second Viennese School. His interest in twelve-tone technique was joined with musical-political engagement, though this was short-lived. The Impromptus I–IV, identified by the composer as his first true opus, abandoned these expressionistic tensions, and these four short pieces exhibit a close relationship to Webern's aphoristic style, while also moving closer to the European avant garde. Personal contact with Luciano Berio at the RAI electronic music studio in Milan also influenced Castiglioni's direction at that time, and his attendance at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse completed this development. During the years 1958 to 1965 he taught at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. From 1966 to 1970 he taught composition as composer-in-residence at SUNY Buffalo (1966), visiting professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1967), Regent Lecturer in composition at the University of California at San Diego (1968), and professor of the history of Renaissance music at the University of Washington in Seattle (1969–70). Following his return to Italy in 1970, he eventually resumed teaching composition at the conservatories of Trent (1976–77), Milan (1977–89), Como (1989–91) and Milan once again (1991–96). Among his many students are Armando Franceschini, Giampaolo Testoni and Carlo Galante, Alfio Fazio, Aldo Brizzi, Matteo Silva and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Philippe Capdenat (born 17 July 1934) is a French composer and academic teacher. First a mining engineer, he started composing avant-garde music, but turned to chamber music, music for the stage (opera, ballet, play music) and vocal music, using traditional instruments. He has been a teacher at several French universities and conservatories.

Peter Schickele (; July 17, 1935 – January 16, 2024) was an American composer, musical educator and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, which he presented as being composed by the fictional P. D. Q. Bach. He also hosted a long-running weekly radio program called Schickele Mix. From 1990 to 1993, Schickele's P. D. Q. Bach recordings earned him four consecutive wins for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Salvador Brotons (Barcelona, July 17, 1959) is a Catalan composer, conductor, and flautist. He is the conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver, Washington and, since the 2022-2023 season, has also been the principal conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica Sant Cugat. Salvador Brotons is considered one of the great contemporary Catalan composers, with a repertoire performed worldwide. As a composer, he is extraordinarily prolific, having written more than 170 works, including symphonic, concertante, chamber, choral music, operas, sardanes, and even a children's story. Faithful to his language, always surprising with its expressive strength, he has consistently maintained melody and tonality, without allowing atonality to condition his style. As a conductor, with an internationally recognized career, he is intense and conveys passion to both musicians and audiences. His work as a conductor has also involved programming responsibilities, and in this regard, Brotons has always balanced major works from the international repertoire with compositions by contemporary Catalan musicians.

Hiba Al Kawas (Arabic: هبة القواس; born 17 July 1972) is a Lebanese operatic soprano, composer and academic.

Gianluca Cascioli (born 17 July 1979 in Turin) is an Italian pianist, conductor, and composer. He studied composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin and piano with Franco Scala. In 1994, Cascioli won the Umberto Micheli International Piano Competition, whose jury included Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Charles Rosen, and Maurizio Pollini. The prize included a record contract with Deutsche Grammophon, for whom he recorded three CDs in his late teens. He has appeared as a piano soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and numerous other orchestras worldwide. Conductors he has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Roberto Abbado, Myung-Whun Chung, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Roberto Carnevale, Mstislav Rostropovich, Neville Marriner, and many others. His chamber-music partners have included Maxim Vengerov, Mstislav Rostropovich, Stefano Mollo, the Berlin Philharmonic Octet, and many others. He has conducted the Deutsche Kammerorchester Frankfurt, and among compositions of his to be performed are a Sonatina (2004) premiered at the Hamburg Musikfest, Variations for Piano, premiered in Japan, and a Symphony premiered in Italy, as well as a Violin and Piano Sonata premiered in Italy with Stefano Mollo. His discography includes three CDs for DG, a recording of the original Fantasie version of Schumann's Piano Concerto with Mario Venzago and the Basel Symphony Orchestra for Hänssler, a CD of Chopin for Decca, and a CD of Debussy's Préludes, Children's Corner, and other works for Decca.