Born Today! 07.09.2024

François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique. He is widely regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book Analyse du jeu des Échecs was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century. A well-known chess opening, an endgame position, and a checkmate method are all named after him.

Joseph Legros, often also spelt Le Gros, (7 September or 8 September 1739 – 20 December 1793) was a French singer and composer of the 18th century. He is best remembered for his association with the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck and is usually regarded as the most prominent haute-contre of his generation, though his acting is reputed to have been mediocre.

Petar Stojanović (7 September 1877 – 11 September 1957) was a Serbian violinist and composer of operettas, ballets and orchestral music. (His birthday is also variously given as 6 September and 25 August.)

Theophrastos Sakellaridis (Θεόφραστος Σακελλαρίδης) (7 September 1883 – 2 January 1950), was a Greek composer, conductor, and basic creator of Greek operetta.

Philipp Herschkowitz (Romanian: Filip Herșcovici; Russian: Филипп Гершкович, Filipp Gershkovich) (7 September 1906 – 5 January 1989) was a Romanian-born composer and music theorist, pupil of Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who spent 47 years, from 1940 to 1987, in the Soviet Union.

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (Turkish pronunciation: [ahˈmet adˈnan sajˈɡun]; 7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a Turkish mode. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works. The Times called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Béla Bartók is to Hungary". Saygun was growing up in Turkey when he witnessed radical changes in his country’s politics and culture as the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had replaced the Ottoman Empire—which had ruled for nearly 600 years—with a new secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun.

Hans Leygraf (7 September 1920 – 12 February 2011) was a Swedish pianist, music educator, conductor and composer.

Kurt Leimer (7 September 1920 in Wiesbaden – 20 November 1974 in Vaduz) was a German concert pianist, composer and piano instructor.

Kirill Vladimirovich Molchanov (Russian: Кирилл Владимирович Молчанов; 7 September 1922 – 14 March 1982) was a Russian and Soviet composer. He was appointed director of the Bolshoi, at the time political disfavour had fallen on the lead soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. His works are in the Social Realist romantic tradition and were not warmly received when performed abroad.

Charles Camilleri (7 September 1931 – 3 January 2009) was a Maltese composer.

Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (September 7, 1937 – March 12, 2018) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist, double bassist, and a musicologist. He was one of the most preeminent composers of African American descent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is known for developing a list of Heterogenous Sound Ideals that is widely used to dissect different aspects of music, with an emphasis on African culture. According to Wilson himself, "The essence of Africanness consists of a way of doing something, not simply something that is done" (1991). This motto is the basis of Wilson's work in the realm of ethnomusicology. He is also known for establishing the TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program at Oberlin Conservatory, the first-ever conservatory program in electronic music.

Peter-Jan Wagemans (The Hague, September 7, 1952) is a Dutch composer. Wagemans studied organ (diploma 1974), composition with Jan van Vlijmen (diploma 1975) and music theory (diploma 1977) at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. After his studies he also worked with Klaus Huber in Freiburg. According to Wagemans' philosophy, music is shaped in the observation of the listener. Therefore, Wagemans tries to focus on ways a work can be recognised, rather than on its fundamental structure. He generally makes use of what he prefers to call musical archetypes, unifying ambivalent elements. Peter-Jan Wagemans is one of the founders of the Rotterdam School. He teaches composition and music theory at the Rotterdam Conservatory since 1984. Wagemans founded the Dutch Doelen Ensemble and for some years was also the artistic director of the Amsterdam-based Holland Symfonia.

Sergio Rendine (7 September 1954 – 21 April 2023) was an Italian composer of operas, ballets, symphonies, cantatas and chamber music. He worked as a lecturer at the Conservatorio Alfredo Casella, for the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and for SIAE. He was artistic director of the Teatro Marrucino in Chieti from 1997 to 2007. He received awards for Alice, a "radiophonic opera". His opera Un segreto d'importanza was premiered by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. His Missa de beatificatione in onore di Padre Pio da Pietrelcina, a mass written for the beatification of Pio of Pietrelcina, was premiered in 1999 in Vatican City, with José Carreras as a soloist. His oratorio Passio et Ressurrectio was recorded live and broadcast from the cathedral in Chieti premiere, and his two symphonies were recorded by Chandos Records.

Robert Livingstone Aldridge (September 7, 1954 in Richmond, VA) is an American composer, professor, and current Head of Composition professor, and former Director of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He has written over eighty works for orchestra, opera, musical theater, dance, and various chamber ensembles that have been performed in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He is widely known for his opera Elmer Gantry, based on Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel of the same name. which was completed in 2007 and won Best Engineered Album (Classical) and Best Contemporary Classical Composition in the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.

Mine Kawakami (born September 7, 1969) (Shōwa 44) is a Japanese pianist and composer.

Gil Shohat (Hebrew: גיל שוחט, born 7 September 1973) is an Israeli classical music composer, conductor, pianist and lecturer.

Mélodie Zhao (simplified Chinese: 赵梅笛; traditional Chinese: 趙梅笛; pinyin: Zhào Méidí; born September 7, 1994) is a classical pianist. She was born in Bulle, Switzerland.