Born Today! 08.10.2024

Antonio Palella (8 October 1692, San Giovanni a Teduccio – 7 March 1761, Naples) was an Italian composer and harpsichordist.

Louis-Joseph Francœur (8 October 1738 – 10 March 1804) was a French violinist, composer, and administrator of the Opéra de Paris.

Baroness Sophie de Bawr (8 October 1773 – 31 December 1860), born Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand, was a French writer, playwright and composer, also known as "Comtesse de Saint-Simon", "Baronne de Bawr", and "M. François".

Waldemar Thrane (8 October 1790 – 30 December 1828) was a Norwegian composer, violinist and conductor. Waldemar Thrane was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Paul Thrane (1751–1830), a businessman and timber merchant, and was an uncle of the author and journalist Marcus Thrane. From 1814 to 1815, he studied music in Paris. In 1819, Thrane made his debut concert in Oslo as conductor, violinist and composer. He served as conductor of the Christiania Public Theatre Orchestra (Christiania offentlige Theaters orkester) and The Musical Lyceum (Det musikalske Lyceum) until he fell ill and was replaced by Ole Bull in 1828. He died at 38 years of age. Waldemar Thranes gate (Waldemar Thrane Street), located in St. Hanshaugen in Oslo, is named in his honor.

Friedrich Kiel (8 October 1821 – 13 September 1885) was a German composer and music teacher. Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his exceptional works from receiving the consideration they deserved. After mentioning Johannes Brahms and others, Altmann writes, “He produced a number of chamber works, which . . . need fear no comparison.”

Felicita Casella née Lacombe (c. 1820–after 1865) was an Italian singer and composer of French birth. She was born at Bourges, the sister of Louis Lacombe. Before 1849 she married Italian cellist and composer Cesare Casella and moved with him to Oporto. Her opera Haydée was performed in Oporto in 1849 and again at the Teatro Dona Maria in Lisbon in 1853, where Casella sang in the principal role. Her next opera Cristoforo Colombo was performed in 1865 at the Théâtre Impérial in Nice.

Felix Woyrsch (8 October 1860 – 20 March 1944) was a German composer and choir director.

Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French organist and composer. As the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death, he focused on organ music, including six organ symphonies and a Messe solennelle for choir and two organs. He toured Europe and the United States as a concert organist. His students included Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Duruflé.

Jaume Pahissa i Jo (also Jaime; October 8, 1880 – October 27, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish-born composer and musicologist. From an article published in Le Figaro March 16, 1913: "We note the great success at the Liceo theater of a new lyrical work called to have a great impact. It is from the famous Catalan composer Jaume Pahissa and is titled "Gala Placidia". It is a work of great musical and scenic value." His students included Ana Serrano Redonnet. The personal papers of Jaume Pahissa are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.

Walter Schumann (October 8, 1913 – August 21, 1958) was an American composer for film, television, and the theater. His notable works include the score for The Night of the Hunter and the Dragnet Theme; the latter of which earned Schumann the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition in 1955. His Broadway musical, 3 for Tonight, won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in 1955.

Tolia Nikiprowetzky (12 or 25 September 1916 – 5 May 1997) was a French composer and musicologist of Russian birth. His compositions include four operas (Les Noces d'Ombre, La Fête et les masques, Le Sourire de l'Autre and La Veuve du Héros); a symphony (Symphony Logos 5); concertos for saxophone, piano, cello, and trumpet; a piece for wind quintet and string orchestra; two large religious works (Numinis Sacra and Ode Funèbre); a few cantatas; several pieces for solo piano; and numerous chamber works among others. Some of his works experimented with serialism, electronic music, and reflected his interest in African music. Born in Feodosiya, Nikiprowetzky immigrated with his parents to France in 1923 where they settled in Marseilles. He began his musical studies at the Marseilles Conservatory but left there in 1937 to enter the Conservatoire de Paris where he was a student of Simone Plé-Caussade and Louis Laloy. After World War II he pursued further studies privately with René Leibowitz. From 1950 to 1955 he worked as musical director of the Moroccan Radio, then in Paris for the overseas radio service. Tolia wrote the first national anthem of independent Mauritania. He also ran a few nightclubs in Paris, where he died in 1997.

Andrew William Thomas (born October 8, 1939) is an American composer. He studied with Karel Husa at Cornell University, with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and earned his M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Composition at The Juilliard School. At Juilliard he studied with Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, and Otto Luening. Thomas teaches and was the chairman of the Composition Department at the Pre-College Division at Juilliard from 1969 to 1994. In 1994, the Juilliard School appointed him the Director of the Pre-College Division. In addition to composing, Dr. Thomas performs as a pianist, conductor, and is a guest teacher throughout the world. His many awards include a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts and a Distinguished Teacher Citation from The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars.

Bob van Asperen (born 8 October 1947, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch harpsichordist and early keyboard instrument performer, as well as a conductor. He graduated in 1971 from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied the harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt and the pipe organ with Albert de Klerk. Since then he has been performing extensively in Europe and the rest of the world as a soloist and accompanist/conductor. In addition to his live performances, he has recorded repeatedly for several labels, including Sony, EMI, Teldec, Virgin, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, specialising in the keyboard repertoire of the 16th - 18th centuries, such as the harpsichord works of Froberger, J. S. Bach, and Handel. One of the most important discography projects he has undertaken is the complete keyboard works of C.P.E. Bach and also the complete sonatas of Catalan composer Antonio Soler (Astrée, 1992). Various other projects are under way, while many of his recordings have been awarded numerous prizes, such as the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or. Bob van Asperen has taught at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Amsterdam Conservatory and for the past thirty years he has given master-classes in Europe, USA and elsewhere. In addition to his teaching activities, he has contributed as a musicologist and editor of several modern editions of works by J. S. Bach and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, as well as other early Dutch composers.

David Jason Snow (born 1954 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American composer. Snow studied composition with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, and Joseph Schwantner at the Eastman School of Music, Jacob Druckman at the Yale School of Music, and Arthur Berger and Martin Boykan at Brandeis University. At the Eastman School, Snow was awarded the Sernoffsky, McCurdy, and Howard Hanson prizes in composition; Yale awarded him a Bradley-Keeler Memorial Scholarship and the Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Prize in composition. Snow has been the recipient of awards, fellowships, residencies and commissions from BMI, the National Association of Composers/USA, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Annapolis Fine Arts Foundation, the ASCAP Foundation, the College Band Directors Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, Res Musica Baltimore, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Renée B. Fisher Foundation, Trio Indiana, SoundMoves, Pastiche, the Arts Council of Montgomery County (Maryland), Yaddo, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.

Garth Knox (born 8 October 1956 in Dublin, Ireland) is a violist and composer who specializes in contemporary classical music and new music.

Michael Jarrell (born 8 October 1958) is a Swiss composer and academic teacher, whose operas, such as Cassandre, have been performed internationally.

Bruno Mantovani (born 8 October 1974) is a French composer. He has been awarded first prizes from the Conservatoire de Paris which he joined in 1993. His work has been commissioned by the French government as well as other organizations. In September 2010 he was appointed to the post of director of the Paris Conservatory.