Born Today! 12.01.2024

John Dowland (c. 1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe", "Now o now I needs must part" and "In darkness let me dwell". His instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.

Gaetano Latilla (12 January 1711 – 15 January 1788) was an Italian opera composer, the most important of the period immediately preceding Niccolò Piccinni (his nephew).Latilla was born in Bari, and studied at the Loreto Conservatory in Naples. He began writing comic operas for the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in 1732, and is best known for his settings of Gismondo (Rome, 1737) and Madama Ciana (Rome, 1738). These two works, along with two by Rinaldo da Capua, formed the core of the traveling Italian comic opera repertory of the 1740s and early 1750s. He also wrote some opere serie, the first of which was a setting of Demofoonte (Venice, 1738).He died in Naples.

Jacques Duphly (also Dufly, Du Phly; 12 January 1715 – 15 July 1789) was a French harpsichordist and composer.

Stepan Ivanovich Davydov (Russian: Степа́н Ива́нович Давы́дов, Ukrainian: Степа́н Іва́нович Давидів born: January 12 [OS January 1] 1777 – died: May 21 [OS May 9] 1825 Moscow) was an Imperial Russian composer and singer. He was born in Chernihiv in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine).

François Louis Hippolyte Monpou (12 January 1804 – 10 August 1841) was a French organist, and composer of songs and operas.

François Louis Hippolyte Monpou (12 January 1804 – 10 August 1841) was a French organist, and composer of songs and operas.

Luigi Vespoli (12 January 1834 – 1861) was an Italian composer. His opera La cantante premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 22 October 1858.

Luigi Vespoli (12 January 1834 – 1861) was an Italian composer. His opera La cantante premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 22 October 1858.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by Carlo Goldoni, including Le donne curiose (1903), I quatro rusteghi (1906) and Il campiello (1936).

Mischa Levitzki (also spelled Levitski; Ukrainian: Міша Левицький (Miša Levycʹkyj); May 25, 1898 – January 2, 1941) was a Russian-born U.S.-based concert pianist and composer. Levitzki was born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), to Jewish parents who were naturalised American citizens on a return trip to Ukraine. He was playing the violin at the age of three, but soon developed an interest in the piano, which he studied in Warsaw with Aleksander Michałowski before making his debut in Antwerp in 1906. In New York, his father brought him to the attention of Walter Damrosch, who obtained a scholarship for him at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School) as a pupil of Zygmunt Stojowski, with whom he studied from 1907 to 1911. In 1913 Levitzki entered the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he became the youngest student of Ernst von Dohnányi and was awarded the Mendelssohn Prize in 1915. By this time he had performed throughout Europe and Scandinavia. He made his American debut in New York on October 17, 1916, at Aeolian Hall, and soon made his permanent home in the United States, later becoming an American citizen. Levitzki concertized worldwide up until the time of his death. He toured in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, making a reputation with his performances of the Romantic repertory. He was elected an honorary member of the Alpha chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity at the New England Conservatory in 1917. He transcribed numerous pieces for piano, prepared a cadenza for Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, and wrote small pieces for the piano. Among his most popular compositions for piano were The Enchanted Nymph, Valse in A, Valse tzigane, and a gavotte. He also recorded extensively for the AMPICO Piano Roll Company during the 1920s. Levitzki died of a heart attack aged 42, in 1941, at his home in Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey. Levitski's papers are conserved at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Leo Smit (January 12, 1921 – December 12, 1999) was an American composer and pianist.

Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown. Feldman's works are characterized by notational innovations that he developed to create his characteristic sound: rhythms that seem to be free and floating, pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused, a generally quiet and slowly evolving music, and recurring asymmetric patterns. His later works, after 1977, also explore extremes of duration.

Viktoria Valentinovna Postnikova (Russian: Виктория Валентиновна Постникова; born 12 January 1944) is a Russian pianist.

Marielli Sfakianaki-Manolidou (born 12 January 1945) is a Greek writer, singer and composer.

Tatiana Shebanova (Russian: Татьяна Шебанова) (12 January 1953 – 1 March 2011) was a Russian pianist.

Motoharu Kawashima (川島素晴; surname Kawashima; born 12 January 1972 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. Kawashima studied composition from 1991 to 1996 with Isao Matsushita and Jo Kondo at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He won the Akiyoshidai International Composition Prize and made his debut in Akiyoshidai International 20th Century Classical Music Festival in 1992. Currently, he teaches composition at the Kunitachi College of Music. He won the Best Notation Prize in Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in 1994. His scores are published by the Zen-On Music Company Ltd Limited Baerenreiter.

Anna Howard Meredith (born 12 January 1978) is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA.In 2016, Meredith released her debut studio album, Varmints, to widespread critical acclaim. An electronica-based release, the album won the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year Award.

Edward W. Hardy (born January 12, 1992) is an American composer, music director, violinist and violist. He is known as the composer, co-conceiver, music director, and violinist of the Off-Broadway show The Woodsman and is the owner of The Black Violin.