Born Today! 01.09.2024

Francesco Sacrati (17 September 1605 in Parma, Italy – 20 May 1650 in Modena, Italy) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era, who played an important role in the early history of opera. He wrote for the Teatro Novissimo in Venice as well as touring his operas throughout Italy. His most famous piece is La finta pazza ("The Feigned Madwoman", 1641), said to be the first opera ever performed in France (in 1645). The manuscript of this work was long thought to be lost but a touring edition of the manuscript was discovered by musicologist Lorenzo Bianconi in 1984. Some of the music bears striking similarities to the score of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, prompting scholars to speculate that Sacrati had a part in composing the surviving version of that opera. The United States premiere of La finta pazza, and first performance outside Europe, occurred in April 2010 at Yale University.

Johann Pachelbel (also Bachelbel; baptised 11 September [O.S. 1 September] 1653 – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era. Pachelbel's music enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best known for the Canon in D; other well known works include the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations. He was influenced by southern German composers, such as Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Caspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French composers, and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition. He preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude, although, like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features exceptionally rich instrumentation. Pachelbel explored many variation forms and associated techniques, which manifest themselves in various diverse pieces, from sacred concertos to harpsichord suites.

Antoine Forqueray (September 1672 – 28 June 1745) was a French composer and virtuoso of the viola da gamba. Forqueray, born in Paris, was the first in a line of composers which included his sons Jean-Baptiste (1699–1782) and Nicolas Gilles (1703–1761) as well as his brother Michel (1681–1757).

Johann Michael Haydn (German: [ˈhaɪdn̩] ; 14 September 1737 – 10 August 1806) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.

Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, also known as Jean-Paul-Gilles Martini (31 August 1741 – 14 February 1816;) was a French composer of German birth during the classical period. He is best known today for the vocal romance "Plaisir d'amour," on which the 1961 Elvis Presley pop standard "Can't Help Falling in Love" is based. He is often confused with the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Martini, so is sometimes known as Martini Il Tedesco ("Martini The German").

Fanny Arthur Robinson (September 1831 – 31 October 1879) was an English pianist, music educator and composer who spent most of her career in Dublin, Ireland.

Engelbert Humperdinck (German: [ˈɛŋl̩bɛʁt ˈhʊmpɐdɪŋk]; 1 September 1854 – 27 September 1921) was a German composer. He is known widely for his opera Hansel and Gretel (1893).

Othmar Schoeck (1 September 1886 – 8 March 1957) was a Swiss Romantic classical composer, opera composer, musician, and conductor. He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas, notably his one-act Penthesilea, which was premiered at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1927 and revived at the Lucerne Festival in 1999. He wrote a handful of instrumental compositions, including two string quartets and concertos for violin (for Stefi Geyer, dedicatee also of Béla Bartók's first concerto), cello and horn.

Kazimierz Wiłkomirski; (September 1, 1900, Moscow - March 7, 1995, Warsaw) was a Polish cellist, composer and conductor. Son of Alfred Wiłkomirski, brother of Maria Wiłkomirska, Wanda Wiłkomirska and violinist Michael Wilkomirski. Graduate of the Moscow Conservatory (cello student of Alfred von Glenn). 1930-1939 - member of the Kwartet Polski (Polish Quartet) with Irena Dubiska, 1945-1947 - Szymanowski Quartet. During World War II, living in occupied Warsaw, participated in underground quartet concerts with Eugenia Umińska. In 1934—1939 - director of the Gdańsk Conservatory; 1945—1947 - first rector of Łódź Conservatory. Director of the Baltic State Opera (then Gdańsk Opera) in 1952–57; professor of the Academy of Music in Sopot. After 1957 - Director and Principal Conductor of Opera Wrocławska. Gave concerts as solo cellist.

Gervase Alfred Booth Hughes (1 September 1905 – July 1984) was an English composer, conductor and writer on music. From 1926 to 1933, Hughes pursued a career as a conductor and chorus master, principally at the British National Opera Company, and also co-produced Shakespeare plays. He left the musical profession in 1933, raising a family and working first as an executive in a railway company and later running luxury European tours. From 1960 to 1972 he published a series of books on musical subjects, beginning with a study of the music of Arthur Sullivan, published in 1960.

Kōmei Abe (安部幸明, Abe Kōmei, 1 September 1911 – 28 December 2006) was a neo-classical Japanese composer who specialized in string quartets. He performed both as cellist and clarinetist.

Kostas Paskalis (1 September 1929, Levadeia - 9 February, 2007, Athens) was a Greek opera singer, one of the leading baritones of the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. Paskalis studied piano before turning to vocal studies at the Athens Music Conservatory. He sang in the chorus of the Athens Opera, before making his solo debut there, as Rigoletto, in 1951. His international career began in 1958, at the Vienna State Opera, as Renato in Un ballo in maschera, where he remained for 25 years, quickly establishing himself in all the major baritone roles of the Italian repertory, especially Verdi roles, notably Rigoletto, Macbeth and Iago. Macbeth was to be his debut role at both the Glyndebourne Festival in 1964, and at Covent Garden London in 1969. In 1966, he created the role of Pentheus in Henze's Die Bassariden, at the Salzburg Festival and also sang at the premiere of the work at La Scala in 1967. Other notables roles included; Barnaba, Alfio, Tonio, Scarpia, Escamillo, etc. He made frequent guest appearances at the Rome Opera, the Munich State Opera, the Berlin State Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, also appearing in Hamburg, Moscow, Leningrad, etc. Though mostly active in Europe, Paskalis did appear in America. He sang Alfonso in the sensational concert performance of Lucrezia Borgia, opposite Montserrat Caballé, at Carnegie Hall, in 1965. That same year, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, as Carlo in La forza del destino alongside Franco Corelli and Cesare Siepi, where he sang 16 performances there until 1967. He returned in 1973 in La forza, again as Carlo, in performances conducted by Michelangelo Veltri, and featuring Leontyne Price, Carlo Bergonzi, and Cesare Siepi. He also appeared at the San Francisco Opera, the New Orleans Opera in Nabucco with Rita Hunter and Ferruccio Furlanetto in 1978, the Houston Grand Opera, etc. After retirement, he remained active as a teacher and judge at vocal competitions. He was artistic director of the Greek National Opera from 1988 to 1990. In 1969–70, he recorded Escamillo in the opéra-comique version of Carmen, opposite Grace Bumbry, Jon Vickers, and Mirella Freni, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, for EMI.

Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer.

Takashi Niigaki (新垣 隆, Niigaki Takashi, born 1 September 1970) is a Japanese composer and music teacher, known for having composed pieces on behalf of the celebrated allegedly-deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi, and for admitting his role in this deception in 2014 prior to the use of one of his pieces at the 2014 Winter Olympics by figure skater Daisuke Takahashi.