Born Today! 01.07.2023

Česlovas Sasnauskas (19 July 1867, in Kapčiamiestis – 18 January 1916, in Saint Petersburg) was a Lithuanian composer. Sasnauskas worked as an organist in Vilkaviškis and also played in Saint Petersburg upon relocating there in 1891. Besides two requiems and several cantatas, he composed many pieces for organ and published his arrangements of Lithuanian folksongs, as well as a collection of his own songs in the folk idiom.

Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed Marxist and member of the Italian Communist Party, Henze produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his requiem for Che Guevara, titled Das Floß der Medusa (The Raft of Medusa), the placing of a red flag on the stage sparked a riot and the arrest of several people, including the librettist. Henze spent a year from 1969 to 1970 teaching in Cuba.

Adam Harasiewicz (born 1 July 1932) is a Polish classical concert pianist. Harasiewicz was born in Chodziez, Poland. After studying violin for two months, at the age of 10 he began piano study, and at age 15 he obtained first prize in a contest at Rzeszów. At 18 he entered the State Higher School of Music in Kraków (at present Academy of Music in Kraków) where he studied with Zbigniew Drzewiecki.Harasiewicz studied with Drzewiecki for six years, and became pre-eminent as an interpreter of Chopin, excelling through a combination of superb technique, lyrical imagination, exceptional consistency of stylistic and idiomatic approach, and (through all of these) in playing of a characteristic temperament which identifies him as a true exponent of the Polish Romantic tradition. He won the first prize at the V International Chopin Piano Competition in 1955. He then spent some years in Belgium, before settling in Austria. Harasiewicz was a member of the jury at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1995, 2010, 2015, and 2021.He has recorded the complete works of Chopin and also much by Szymanowski.

Kenneth Daniel Fuchs (born July 1, 1956) is a Grammy Award-winning American composer. He currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at the University of Connecticut (Storrs).

Sufjan Stevens ( SOOF-yahn; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations. His debut album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather. He received wide recognition for his 2005 album Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album. Stevens later contributed to the soundtrack of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the soundtrack's lead single, "Mystery of Love." Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of The Age of Adz and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens' tenth and second most recent studio album, A Beginner's Mind, was created alongside Angelo De Augustine and released in 2021.

Sufjan Stevens ( SOOF-yahn; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations. His debut album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather. He received wide recognition for his 2005 album Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album. Stevens later contributed to the soundtrack of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the soundtrack's lead single, "Mystery of Love." Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of The Age of Adz and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens' tenth and second most recent studio album, A Beginner's Mind, was created alongside Angelo De Augustine and released in 2021.