Born Today! 11.12.2023

Charles Wesley junior (11 December 1757 in Bristol – 23 May 1834 in London) was an English organist and composer. He was the son of Sarah and Charles Wesley (the great hymn-writer and one of the founders of Methodism), and the brother of Samuel Wesley, also an organist and composer. He is usually referred to as "Charles Wesley junior" to avoid confusion with his more famous father. He married Eliza Skelton and had at least two children. Although Charles Wesley junior is much less well known than his brother Samuel Wesley, he was like Samuel regarded as a musical prodigy in childhood, and he was playing the organ before the age of three. He became a professional musician in adulthood, and Matthews (1971) quotes the European Magazine of 1784 as reporting that "his performance on the organ has given supreme delight". However he did not enjoy public performance, and worked mainly as a private organist, at one time to the Prince Regent; he was connected with the royal family through much of his life, having first played at the Queen's House at the age of 18. A handful of his compositions are still played, and a keyboard sonata in F minor was recently discovered and received its first performance on 1 February 2007 at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, as part of Methodist celebration of a year that is both the 300th anniversary of Charles Wesley's birth and the 250th anniversary of Charles Wesley junior's.

Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 – 15 May 1832) was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his father's bricklaying business, Zelter attained mastership in that profession, and was a musical autodidact. Zelter was born and died in Berlin. He became friendly with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and his works include settings of Goethe's poems. During his career, he composed about two hundred lieder, as well as cantatas, a viola concerto (performed as early as 1779) and piano music. Amongst Zelter's pupils (at different times) were Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eduard Grell, Otto Nicolai, Johann Friedrich Naue, and Heinrich Dorn. Felix Mendelssohn was perhaps Zelter's favorite pupil and Zelter wrote to Goethe boasting of the 12-year old's abilities. Zelter communicated his strong love of the music of J. S. Bach to Mendelssohn, one consequence of which was Mendelssohn's 1829 revival of Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Sing-Akademie under Zelter's auspices. This epochal event sparked a general re-evaluation and revival of Bach's works, which were then largely forgotten and regarded as old-fashioned and beyond resuscitation. Mendelssohn had hoped to succeed Zelter on the latter's death as leader of the Singakademie, but the post went instead to Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen. Zelter was married to Julie Pappritz in 1796, one year after his first wife, Sophie Eleonora Flöricke, née Kappel, had died. Pappritz was a well-known singer at the Berlin Opera. Zelter is buried at the Sophienkirche in Berlin. The violinist Daniel Hope (born 1973) is a direct descendant of Zelter.[1] Zelter was the author of a biography of Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, first published in 1801 by J.F. Unger in Berlin. The novelist Elizabeth Sara Sheppard portrayed Zalter as the character Aronach in her 1853 novel Charles Auchester.

Jan Theobald Held (December 11, 1770 – June 20, 1851), also known as Johann Theobald Held was a Bohemian physician, educator, musician, and composer. He was noted for his theories on psychosis, and the links between psychology and environmental conditions. He served as the dean of Charles University, Prague, and was depicted in the novel F. L. Věk by Alois Jirásek.

Jan Theobald Held (December 11, 1770 – June 20, 1851), also known as Johann Theobald Held was a Bohemian physician, educator, musician, and composer. He was noted for his theories on psychosis, and the links between psychology and environmental conditions. He served as the dean of Charles University, Prague, and was depicted in the novel F. L. Věk by Alois Jirásek.

Pietro Antonio Coppola (11 December 1793 – 13 November 1876) was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Castrogiovanni, he was trained by his father and at the Naples Conservatory. He is chiefly known for his many operas, of which his most famous, Nina pazza per amore, premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome in February 1835. While his works have rarely been performed after the 19th century, during his lifetime they enjoyed success in major opera houses in Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain. As a conductor he was particularly active at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. He died in Catania at the age of 82.

Pietro Antonio Coppola (11 December 1793 – 13 November 1876) was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Castrogiovanni, he was trained by his father and at the Naples Conservatory. He is chiefly known for his many operas, of which his most famous, Nina pazza per amore, premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome in February 1835. While his works have rarely been performed after the 19th century, during his lifetime they enjoyed success in major opera houses in Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain. As a conductor he was particularly active at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. He died in Catania at the age of 82.

Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, choral pieces including the Requiem and L'Enfance du Christ, his three operas Benvenuto Cellini, Les Troyens and Béatrice et Bénédict, and works of hybrid genres such as the "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette and the "dramatic legend" La Damnation de Faust. The elder son of a provincial doctor, Berlioz was expected to follow his father into medicine, and he attended a Parisian medical college before defying his family by taking up music as a profession. His independence of mind and refusal to follow traditional rules and formulas put him at odds with the conservative musical establishment of Paris. He briefly moderated his style sufficiently to win France's premier music prize – the Prix de Rome – in 1830, but he learned little from the academics of the Paris Conservatoire. Opinion was divided for many years between those who thought him an original genius and those who viewed his music as lacking in form and coherence. At the age of twenty-four Berlioz fell in love with the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, and he pursued her obsessively until she finally accepted him seven years later. Their marriage was happy at first but eventually foundered. Harriet inspired his first major success, the Symphonie fantastique, in which an idealised depiction of her occurs throughout. Berlioz completed three operas, the first of which, Benvenuto Cellini, was an outright failure. The second, the huge epic Les Troyens (The Trojans), was so large in scale that it was never staged in its entirety during his lifetime. His last opera, Béatrice et Bénédict – based on Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing – was a success at its premiere but did not enter the regular operatic repertoire. Meeting only occasional success in France as a composer, Berlioz increasingly turned to conducting, in which he gained an international reputation. He was highly regarded in Germany, Britain and Russia both as a composer and as a conductor. To supplement his earnings he wrote musical journalism throughout much of his career; some of it has been preserved in book form, including his Treatise on Instrumentation (1844), which was influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. Berlioz died in Paris at the age of 65.

Adolf Čech (born Adolf Jan Antonin Tausik; 11 December 1841 – 27 December 1903) was a Czech conductor, who premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák (the 2nd, 5th and 6th symphonies, more than any other conductor; other important orchestral works, four operas, the Stabat Mater), Bedřich Smetana (Má vlast, five operas), Zdeněk Fibich (two operas) and other Czech composers. He also led the first performances outside Russia of two operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Czech premieres of seven operettas by Jacques Offenbach. He was also a bass singer and a translator of opera librettos.

Adolf Čech (born Adolf Jan Antonin Tausik; 11 December 1841 – 27 December 1903) was a Czech conductor, who premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák (the 2nd, 5th and 6th symphonies, more than any other conductor; other important orchestral works, four operas, the Stabat Mater), Bedřich Smetana (Má vlast, five operas), Zdeněk Fibich (two operas) and other Czech composers. He also led the first performances outside Russia of two operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Czech premieres of seven operettas by Jacques Offenbach. He was also a bass singer and a translator of opera librettos.

Julian Edwards (December 11, 1855 - September 5, 1910) was an English composer of light operatic music, who composed many successful Broadway shows in the Progressive Era. He attempted to introduce new levels of musical sophistication to the genre. Some of his songs achieved popularity at the time.

Eugen Lindner (11 December 1858 in Leipzig – 12 November 1915 in Weimar) was a German composer, notably of opera. A friend of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, he was an important figure in musical scene in Weimar before the First World War. Lindner's earlier career was spent in Leipzig, where his recently completed opera Ramiro was first staged in September 1886 at the Neues Stadttheater, with Mahler conducting in his own first season there. Lindner was a pupil of Edmund Abesser and Gustav Kogel for the piano; of Volck and Friedrich Stack in composition and of Franz Götze in singing and, at the age of twenty, became a chorus master in his home town. He quickly allied himself stylistically with Wagner and began to conduct Wagner's works. He was also in demand as a singer and as a singing teacher but began to turn his attention more and more to composition. Eventually he was nominated as a Court (Imperial) Professor of Music in Weimar. Other works include the operas Der Meisterdieb (The Master Thief) (1889), to a libretto by Gustav Kastroff and the composer after Arthur Fitger's poem, and the unstaged opera Eldena. He produced many songs (over sixty, some with orchestral arrangements) for voice and piano in a romantic and dramatic, sometimes declamatory style, using post-Wagnerian harmony, mostly published by the Hermann Seemann Nachfolger Verlag to texts by such poets as Carl Busse, Ada Negri, Otto Roquette and Emil zu Schönaich-Carolath, whose almost exact contemporary he was. Lindner was sometimes attracted to exotic or eastern subjects, typified by the short song cycle "Lieder des Saidjah".

Mieczysław Karłowicz ([miɛt͡ʂɨswaf ˈkarwɔvit͡ʂ], 11 December 1876 – 8 February 1909) was a Polish composer and conductor.

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. The recipient of many awards, Carter was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Born in New York City, Carter had developed an interest in modern music in the 1920s. He was later introduced to Charles Ives, and he soon came to appreciate the American ultra-modernists. After studying at Harvard University with Edward Burlingame Hill, Gustav Holst and Walter Piston, he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, then returned to the United States. Carter was productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008. He completed his last work, Epigrams for piano trio, on August 13, 2012.

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. The recipient of many awards, Carter was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Born in New York City, Carter had developed an interest in modern music in the 1920s. He was later introduced to Charles Ives, and he soon came to appreciate the American ultra-modernists. After studying at Harvard University with Edward Burlingame Hill, Gustav Holst and Walter Piston, he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, then returned to the United States. Carter was productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008. He completed his last work, Epigrams for piano trio, on August 13, 2012.

Richard Owen (December 11, 1922 – November 20, 2015) was an American attorney, jurist, and composer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Jan Bach (December 11, 1937 – October 30, 2020) was an American composer. He taught at the University of Tampa (Florida) from 1965 to 1966 and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois (music theory and composition) from 1966 to 2002. His primary performing instrument was the horn, and he was renowned among hornists for his horn pieces. He also played the piano. Bach died on October 30, 2020, at age 82.

Inger Wikstrom (born 11 December 1939) is a Swedish pianist, composer and conductor.

Aaron Robinson is an American composer, conductor, and musicologist. He is the author of Does God Sing? – A Musical Journey. He created the musical work Black Nativity – In Concert: A Gospel Celebration. He also served as conductor and musical director in the PBS documentary On This Island. In 2013, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for composing Maine Public Broadcasting Network's Maine Arts series theme music.