Born Today! 06.02.2024

Franz Xaver Pentenrieder (6 February 1813 – 17 July 1867) was a German composer of church music and operas. Pentenrieder was born in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria and studied with Johann Nepomuk Kalcher and Joseph Hartmann Stuntz in Munich. He entered the choir of the Munich Frauenkirche and went on to become court Kapellmeister and organist to the King of Bavaria. He also served as the choir director at Ludwigskirche and répétiteur at the Munich Hofoper (now known as the Bavarian State Opera). He spent the final years of his life in an insane asylum after serious injuries from a carriage accident left him physically and mentally disabled.

Vicente Cuyás (Catalan: Vicenç Cuyàs i Borés) (Palma de Mallorca, 6 February 1816 – Barcelona, 7 March 1839) was a Spanish composer known for his romantic opera La fattucchiera. Vicente Cuyás was born to a Catalan family in Palma de Mallorca where his family had fled during the Peninsular War. Shortly thereafter, the family returned to Barcelona where Cuyás began studies in medicine, which he soon abandoned. At the age of 17 he began to study music with Ramón Vilanova, one of Barcelona's most prestigious teachers during the early nineteenth century, who in turn had trained in Milan with abbé Isidore Piantanida. Cuyás' early works consist of some operatic music which was premiered widely in private salons, but it was at the Teatre de la Santa Creu where almost all of his works were produced. His First Symphony, written in 1835, although it is actually an extensive opera overture in a single movement — but it gained him some notice when it was dedicated to the actress Matilde Díez. Of his Second Symphony only a fragment remains. By 1835 several arias and duets had been composed for a drama of Antonio Ribot. As far as opera is concerned, Vincenzo Bellini was his prime influence.

Henry Charles Litolff (7 August 1818 – 5 August 1891) was a British virtuoso pianist, composer of Romantic music, and music publisher. A prolific composer, he is today known mainly for a single brief work – the scherzo from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D minor – and remembered as the founder of the Collection Litolff (today part of Edition Peters), a highly regarded publishing imprint of classical music scores.

Karl Ignaz Weigl (6 February 1881 – 11 August 1949) was a Jewish Austrian composer and pianist, who later became a naturalized American citizen in 1943.

Maurice Anne Fernand Le Roux or Leroux (6 February 1923, Paris, France – 19 October 1992 in Avignon, France) was a French composer and conductor. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatory and was a student of Olivier Messiaen. His work includes 19 original film scores and a number of television scores and orchestrations.1

Douglas Hill (born February 6, 1946) is an American composer, author and horn soloist. He was the professor of horn at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1974 to 2011, when he was replaced by Daniel Grabois. He has performed as a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, Madison Symphony Orchestra and New York City Ballet, among others, and also performs in chamber ensembles including the American Brass Quintet. He has made three solo recordings, as well as several recordings of chamber and orchestral music. Hill is one of twenty horn soloists reviewed in the book 20th Century Brass Soloists by Michael Meckna, which surveys both jazz and classical genres.Hill served as president of the International Horn Society (IHS) from 1978 to 1981, and was elected an honorary member of the society in 2008. He also served as Chair of the Classical Music Division of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. He has judged several competitions, including the Fischoff and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions, and the first International Horn Competition in Toulon, France.

Param Vir is a British composer originally from India. Born in Delhi into a family life permeated with Indian classical music, Param Vir's strong interest in music developed as a teenager when attending a Roman Catholic secondary school and had informal lessons from composer Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, then resident in India. With no prospects as a composer in India, he read history and philosophy at Delhi University, but returned to music on graduation in 1974 as a teacher. From 1983 Vir studied composition at Dartington with Peter Maxwell Davies and at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oliver Knussen. In 1986 Vir was a composition fellow at Tanglewood. The following year he was a featured composer in the Festival of India in Geneva.